'Suitcase killer' Heather Mack sentenced to 26 years

An American woman who pleaded guilty to helping kill her own mother and stuffing the body in a suitcase during a luxury vacation in Bali is scheduled to be sentenced in a hearing underway Wednesday in Chicago.

CHICAGO — An American woman who pleaded guilty to helping kill her own mother and stuffing the body in a suitcase during a luxury vacation in Bali was sentenced Wednesday to 26 years in prison.

Judge Matthew Kennelly gave Mack credit for the approximately two years she spent in custody in Chicago awaiting trial since her return in 2021. Mack’s attorney Michael Leonard said her formal sentence will be around 23 years total.

Federal prisoners also get credit for good behavior, roughly 50 days for each year.

Federal prosecutors had recommended a 28-year prison sentence for Heather Mack for conspiring with her boyfriend to kill Sheila von Wiese-Mack in 2014.

The government also wanted the 28-year-old Mack to get 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.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/suitcase-killer-heather-mack-sentenced-rcna134356

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