Indonesian Court Sentences US Couple For Killing Mother

An Indonesian court sentenced an American couple to prison Tuesday after finding them guilty of premeditated murder in the killing of the woman's mother at a Bali hotel.



A panel of judges at the Denpasar District Court sentenced Tommy Schaefer, 21, to 18 years in prison and Heather Louis Mack, 19, to 10 years over the death of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, last August.



Both defendants were teary throughout the trial, with Schaefer turning silent as the verdict was read, the Kompas news website reported.



Judge Made Suweda said Mack had "deliberately helped in the premeditated murder" and explained that Schaefer's 18-year sentence could "decrease during the detention period."



The state prosecutor and the couple's legal team have one week to decide on whether they will appeal the verdict.



Schaefer was handed the sentence demanded by prosecutors, who had requested 15 years in prison for Mack – who gave birth to a baby girl in mid-March.



Mack and Schaefer were tried separately over the murder of von Wiese-Mack, whose badly beaten body was found in a suitcase in the boot of a taxi outside a hotel in August.



Mack had told the court that her boyfriend had killed von Wiese-Mack with a metal bowl out of anger after she threatened to kill their unborn child.



Mack said that both she and Schaefer had tried to revive von Wiese-Mack when they realized she was not breathing, insisting that she had not wished for the death of her mother.



According to the prosecution, the couple plotted to murder von Wiese-Mack because she did not approve of their relationship and Mack had suggested Schaefer hire someone to kill her mother.



Mack is said to have helped put her mother's body into the suitcase. The couple then hired a taxi and put the suitcase in the trunk before vanishing.



Mother and daughter arrived in Bali on Aug. 4 last year for a holiday and were due to return to the U.S. on Aug. 15. Schaefer arrived on Aug. 12 and stayed in one of the rooms booked under von Wiese-Mack's name.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Endonezya