Teen & boyfriend who gruesomely murdered her mother jailed for 10 & 18 years(Photos)

Heather Mack has been sentenced to 10 years for the 'sadistic' murder of her mother in a crime dubbed the 'body in the suitcase' killing. Her sentence came just minutes after her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, was jailed for 18 years at a court in Denpasar, Bali today.

According to Dailymail, Mack, 19, from Chicago was found guilty of helping Schaefer stuff the body of her mother into a suitcase. Tears rolled down Miss Mack's face as the interpreter told her the judges were sending her to jail for the next 10 years.

They were first arrested last August following the discovery of the battered body of Heather’s 62-year-old mother in a suitcase had been placed in the boot of a taxi.

But Mack claimed she had not been party to her mother’s death and had only assisted her boyfriend in stuffing the body into the suitcase after she panicked.

For his part, Schaefer argued that he had hit Mrs Mack with the metal part of a fruit bowl after she grabbed him by the throat during an argument in her room at Bali’s upmarket St Regis Hotel.

He claimed there had always been dissent between Mrs Mack and himself because she objected to his relationship with her daughter - particularly after she learned her daughter was pregnant with his child.

The sentence has shown, however, that the judges had considered pleas by the defence that she was a young mother with a month-old baby and she had not contributed to the death of her own mother.

But Judge Suweda said: 'She failed to contact the police after the murder. Instead she had run away.'

Moments earlier, the judge jailed Schaefer to 18 years in prison. He said the violence of the crime - in which Schaefer was described as battering Sheila von Wiese-Mack to death - had shocked Bali by its brutality.

'Taking into account the 340 chapter of criminal code and other related laws, (panel) declared that the defendant Tommy Schaefer has been legally and convincingly guilty of committing premeditated murder,' Judge Suweda said.
'Therefore the defendant is sentenced to 18 years in jail.'

He described Schaefer's actions as sadistic, but said his politeness and remorse during the trial saved him from the heavier sentence.

'Although I do take full responsibility for my actions, I am not a murderer,' Scahefer said after hearing the verdict.

It was not immediately clear if the defence planned to appeal.
The fact the judge and his colleagues decided not to reduce the 18 years demanded by the prosecution suggested they would also show no mercy to Mack, 19. The sentences mean that Schaefer will be 39 years old when he is released from Kerobokan Jail. And when Mack is released, her daughter will be 10 years old. 

 

Mack's defence team claimed that during the fatal argument between her mother and Schaefer, she had run and hid in the bathroom - but had then helped her boyfriend push her mother's body into the suitcase because she panicked and because he was the father of the child she was carrying.

In the final hours before Mack learned of her fate, she told People magazine that tending to her newborn daughter keeps her from dwelling on what the coming day may bring.

She is allowed to keep her baby in prison with her for two years, and Mack said she couldn't bare to give her up.

'I don't want to separate my family,' she said. 'It's too painful to think about having to be separated from my angel.'