More than 11 years after he was arrested in Bali for the murder of former Oak Park resident Sheila Mack, Tommy Schaefer is back in the United States.
Like former girlfriend Heather Mack before him, Tommy was released from Kerobokan Prison on the Indonesian island of Bali Tuesday, after being held at an immigration detention center for nearly a week. He flew back to Chicago Tuesday night.
Unlike with Heather Mack, U.S. authorities did not wait for him to step onto U.S. soil before taking him into custody. The Department of Justice said in a press release Thursday that Schaefer “was arrested in international air space on a flight back to the United States.”
In a court hearing Feb. 26 Schaefer stood next to his defense attorney, Matthew Madden, in an orange jumpsuit and chained at the ankles, his hands clasped behind his back, before Federal Judge Matthew F. Kennelly.
As Schaefer’s mother, Kia Walker, watched from the front row of the court gallery, Judge Kennelly conducted his arraignment, informing him of his rights, the charges against him and the maximum possible sentence if he is convicted. Schaefer waived a formal reading of the indictment and entered a plea of not guilty. He also waived having a detention hearing, with the understanding he can seek release on bond at a later date. Kennelly ordered him retained until further notice.
After the hearing, Kia Walker strode past the assembled TV cameras and reporters waiting in the Dirksen Federal Building lobby and walked out of the building accompanied by two other women.
Schaefer is charged in a three-count indictment with one count of conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, one count of conspiracy to commit foreign murder of a U.S. national, and one count of obstruction.
Now 32 years old, he faces up to life in prison in the United States if convicted for conspiracy to commit the murder of 62-year-old Sheila Mack. Kennelly set a Jan. 11, 2027 trial date. Schaefer’s next in court status hearing is May 21.
Schaefer has known since at least early November 2021, in the wake of the arrest of Heather Mack by the FBI, that he was under indictment. What he could not have known and will soon find out, is the extent of the breadth and depth of evidence prosecutors have to use against him at trial. Still, he apparently believes he can represent himself in court.
Wednesday Journal arrived several minutes late to the arraignment. Both the Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune reported that Schaefer’s attorney, federal defender Matthew Madden, told Judge Kennelly that Schaefer wanted to represent himself.
When Kennelly asked Schaefer if he’d allow a defense attorney to represent him at arraignment, the papers reported, Schaefer asked the judge if “there is anything negative that would happen to me” if he represented himself.
When Schaefer admitted that “I’m not really sure how everything goes,” Kennelly urged him to use competent legal counsel and Schaefer agreed to that for the time being.
Schaefer will spend his time awaiting trial housed in the high rise MCC prison, just west of the Chicago Loop, in sterile confinement, with no direct sunlight allowed by the angled slit windows into a 7 1/2 by 10-foot cell with a solid steel door. It is all a far cry from the pleasant if humid mid-70s and alternating rain clouds and sunshine he left behind on Bali.
Schaefer’s former girlfriend, Heather Mack, who was named in the same indictment as him, agreed to a plea deal. She was sentenced to 26 years in prison in January 2025 for her part in her mother’s brutal killing, which was allegedly planned by the two lovers in order to obtain a $1.5 million trust fund. She is currently incarcerated in the medium security women’s prison in Hazelton, West Virginia, and is scheduled to be released 18 years from this March.
