‘Suitcase killer’ Heather Mack in court for sentencing in mother’s Bali slaying: Live

Heather Mack has been branded a “monster” and a “master manipulator” by her uncle in the courtroom.

Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s brother Bill Wiese addressed his niece at the sentencing hearing.

“Heather, your brutal actions killed my sister, Sheila, on August 12 2014,” he said, reportedThe Chicago Sun-Times.

Mr Wiese said the pain she had inflicted on the family was “sickening”.

“Heather is a master manipulator. She always knows exactly what she is doing,” he said.

The first person to speak in the courtroom is Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s brother – Heather Mack’s uncle – Bill Wiese.

Note: Von Wiese-Mack’s family welcomed the plea deal being reached last year.

Heather Mack has entered the courtroom in Chicago to be sentenced over the murder of her mother.

Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit and wearing glasses, she appeared to acknowledge someone in the gallery as she entered.

Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s family and Tommy Schaefer’s mother are present in the courtroom.

Heather Mack’s boyfriend Tommy Schaefer flew out to Bali in August 2014 where the couple then murdered her mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack in the luxury hotel room.

Schaefer and Mack then stuffed her body into a suitcase.

He was arrested charged with premeditated murder alongside Mack.

He pleaded guilty and avoided the death penalty by firing squad.

Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in April 2015.

He is still behind bars in Indonesia before he too will face charges on US soil.

In 2017, Schaefer’s cousin Ryan Bibbs, then 24, was also convicted of conspiracy to kill von Wiese-Mack, after it emerged that he had coached the two killers in different murder methods.

He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit the foreign murder of a US national and was sentenced to nine years in US federal prison.

The devastated family of murdered socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack issued a statement after Heather Mack reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors back in June.

William Wiese and Debbi Curran, von Wiese-Mack’s siblings, said:

“After almost nine years, we are very relieved that the mastermind of Sheila’s murder admitted her guilt today.

“We will continue to be our sister Sheila’s voice throughout the sentencing process to ensure that real justice is achieved.

“It has been devastating to witness the corruption in Indonesia which prevented true justice from being obtained eight years ago.

“Thanks to the incredible efforts of the US Attorney’s Office and FBI, we are hopeful for a sentence that more appropriately reflects the heinous and premeditated nature of the crime.”

In June, Heather Mack reached a plea deal with prosecutors in federal court in Illinois, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to kill a US national so that she and her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer could gain access to a $1.5m trust fund.

“I plead guilty, your honor,” she told US District Judge Matthew Kelley during the short hearing.

Under the terms of the agreement, prosecutors recommend that she faces a maximum sentence of 28 years in prison, with consideration given to the seven years that she’s already served in Indonesian jail.

If she is sentenced to 28 years, she could be eligible for release in 2042 – taking into account the time served in Indonesia and behind bars in the US. She will be 46 years old.

Heather Mack was the daughter of socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack and famed musician James L Mack and had a privileged upbringing in the Oak Park suburb of Chicago.

But, following Mack’s 2006 death, von Wiese-Mack called the police to their home dozens of times due to incidents of domestic violence.

Oak Park Police records reveal at least 35 interactions with officers since 2008 including accusations that Mack broke her mother’s arm, bit and punched her.

In 2013 – just over one year before her murder – von Wiese-Mack confided in a detective that she feared Mack was going to kill her.

But friends later said, despite being fearful of what her daughter might do, she decided to take her on holiday with her in the summer of 2014. This trip ended up being the last von Wiese-Mack would ever take.

“Suitcase killer” Heather Mack is facing up to 28 years in US prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder her socialite mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali back in 2014 – finally bringing some sort of conclusion to a horror case that has rumbled on for almost eight years.

Mack reached a plea deal with prosecutors in federal court in Illinois in June, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to kill a US national so that she and her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer could gain access to a $1.5m trust fund.

“I plead guilty, your honor,” she told US District Judge Matthew Kelley during the short hearing.

Under the terms of the agreement, prosecutors recommend that she faces a maximum sentence of 28 years in prison, with consideration given to the seven years that she’s already served in Indonesian jail.

If she is sentenced to 28 years, she could be eligible for release in 2042 – taking into account the time served in Indonesia and behind bars in the US. She will be 46 years old.

Heather Mack is scheduled to appear in court for her sentencing at 10am CT (11am ET).

The 28-year-old will appear in US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois before Judge Matthew Kennelly.

She faces up to 28 years in prison on a conspiracy to murder charge.

Prosecutors are seeking a 28-year prison sentence for Heather Mack, after she reached a plea deal in June.

Sentencing is scheduled Wednesday in Chicago – almost a decade after Mack and her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer murdered her mother.

Justice Department prosecutors are seeking the longest possible sentence of 28 years, five years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and restitution of $262,708.

In a filing last week, prosecutors said the recommended sentence “is warranted and sufficient, but not greater than necessary to serve a just and appropriate punishment for Mack’s heinous crime”.

Mack’s defence is instead seeking a 15-year prison term, with credit for seven years spent in Indonesian prison.

“For the taxpayers to incur the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to incarcerate Ms. Mack for an extended period of time within the BOP is particularly unnecessary,” her attorney Michael Leonard said in a recent court filing.