Heather Mack's attorneys seek her release ahead of federal conspiracy trial in murder of her mother
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Heather Mack, the Oak Park woman who is facing federal charges in the 2014 murder of her mother, after already serving 7 years in an Indonesian prison for her role in the killing, is asking a federal judge to release her from jail as she awaits trial.
Mack was released from prison in Indonesia in 2021, after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence for helping her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, kill her mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, in Bali in 2014, and stuffing her body in a suitcase.
After she was released from prison in Indonesia, Mack was deported back to the U.S., and before landing back in Chicago last November, when she was immediately arrested on a federal indictment charging her and Schaefer with conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
Mack has been held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago ever since, but on Monday her defense attorneys filed a motion asking for her to be released from custody as she awaits trial, set for next July.
In the motion, Mack's defense attorneys argue she is not a flight risk, saying she "has no means to travel" and has already forfeited her passport. They also argue, despite her Indonesian conviction for her mother's murder, she poses no danger to the community.
"Apart from the long-standing conflict that Ms. Mack had with her mother prior to her mother's death, Ms. Mack had absolutely no record of presenting any danger to anyone. She has no criminal history, apart from the foreign conviction which arises out of the same issues presented in this case," Mack's defense attorneys wrote.
Mack's defense team argued, if a judge believes there is any risk of flight or danger to the community, those concerns can be alleviated by either placing her on electronic monitoring, home confinement, or other pre-trial conditions.
"In addition, Ms. Mack's counsel proposes that Ms. Mack live with a third-party custodian, and counsel is providing the contact information for that individual to Pre-Trial Services – as well as providing the identity of that proposed individual to the Government," her attorneys wrote.
The charges against Mack and Schaefer state, while in the United States, the couple "conspired with each other" to kill Mack's mother. It says, "on or about August 2, 2014, Mack boarded an airplane at O'Hare" and "arranged for Schaefer to travel from Chicago, Illinois to Bali, Indonesia."
According to the indictment, they also "corruptly destroyed, mutilated and concealed objects, and attempted to do so, with intent to impair the object's integrity and availability for use in an official proceeding, by forcing the body of Sheila A. Von Wiese into a suitcase after she had been killed and removing the suitcase from the place of the murder, and by removing linens and items of clothing worn during the killing."
The indictment also accuses the couple of conspiring with Schaefer's cousin, Robert Ryan Justin Bibbs, who did not participate in the killing, but pleaded guilty to advising Schaefer with how to get away with the murder.
Prosecutors say Schaefer exchanged messages with Bibbs, "regarding different ways to kill Von Weise" and that Mack and Schaefer exchanged messages discussing "how and when to kill Von Weise."
Bibbs pleaded guilty in 2016 to conspiracy to commit foreign murder of U.S. national, and later was sentenced to 9 years in prison.
Mack has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle on Thursday scheduled Mack's trial to begin on July 31, 2023.
Federal prosecutors have said they expect the trial "will last no longer than three weeks."
While in prison, Mack gave birth to her daughter Stella. The child is now with a court-approved guardian, and three people are now battling over custody of Stella, including the girl's paternal grandmother, a cousin of Mack's, a onetime friend of Mack's mother, and the woman who cared for Stella while Mack was in prison.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a judge last week ordered Stella into the temporary care of her maternal cousin, Lisa Hellman, while a final custody decision is still pending.
