Heather Mack: Chicago suitcase killer who murdered mom seeks credit for time served abroad

BALI, INDONESIA: Heather Mack, who brutally murdered her mother ten years ago at a posh Bali resort, is currently the target of US prosecutors in Chicago. She served her sentence in Indonesia before entering a guilty plea to federal charges in Illinois.

Mack's lawyers are demanding credit for her time served abroad and a lenient sentence of maximum 15 years. However, the prosecution is asking for a full 28 years in prison.

Heather Mack's lawyers demand 15-year sentence

In June 2014, Heather Mack, then 28, entered a guilty plea to a federal charge of plotting to kill a US national in connection with her mother's murder.

She was found guilty by an Indonesian court of keeping quiet about Sheila von Wiese's beating death at the hands of her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer.

After that, the two packed her body into a bloody suitcase and left it in a taxi outside the St Regis hotel. Federal prosecutors stated earlier this week in a sentencing memo that "the murder of von Wiese at the hands of the defendant and Schaefer was vicious."

Mack's legal team is asking the judge to give her a minimum sentence of 15 years, deducting the seven years she has already spent behind bars in Indonesia.

Defense attorneys argued a longer sentence “would clearly be a waste of public resources” and would harm Mack’s relationship with her young daughter, whom she birthed while behind bars in Indonesia, according to CBS News.

Mack's attorneys admitted that their client was a part of the toxic environment, but they insisted that Schaefer and her parents mistreated their client.

Lawyers even claimed it would be "unwarranted" to keep her behind bars longer given that co-conspirator Robert Bibbs was given a nine-year sentence for his role in the murder plot.

What does evidence say?

According to the evidence, von Wiese battled for survival, which means that in her final moments, she came to the realization that her only child was killing her.

As per a Fox News report, "Von Wiese had been worried that Mack would one day kill her, and it is hard to fathom the physical and emotional pain von Wiese endured in the final moments of her life." 

Bibbs' cousin Schaefer is also charged with participating in the murder in an attempt to become "rich" from the money they believed they would inherit from von Wiese.

The prosecutors retrieved text messages that Mack and Schaefer exchanged, in which they plotted the murder and discussed extravagant spending plans.

"I can't wait to be rich," Schaefer wrote days before the murder. "I seriously can't wait…I'm like thinking of lavish lifestyles." "Lmao," Mack replied.

According to court documents, Mack texted Schaefer one last time just before the murder, telling him to "[g]ive her a minute to be off guard" before killing her in her hotel room with a metal handle.

Von Wiese died from blunt force trauma that fractured her nose and jaw and obstructed her airway, according to an autopsy that discovered defensive wounds on her body.