Heather Mack has been sentenced to 26 years in federal prison for her role in conspiring with her boyfriend to murder her mother in Bali and was found by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly as having committed a brutal and premeditated crime. She will not get credit for the seven years she spent incarcerated in Indonesia for the murder and will have to serve at least 85% of her sentence, which means she may spend over 19 additional years in prison. Additionally, Mack has been ordered to pay restitution, and a fine.
Kennelly considered her guilty plea in sentencing Mack, who admitted to plotting with her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer to kill her mother in 2014 and conspiring to access funds from her mother’s estate. Despite claiming to have experienced abuse from her mother, Mack pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kill a U.S. national. She was considered by prosecutors as having shown little to no remorse, with the potential to profit from her crime.
Before she was sentenced, Mack apologized for killing her mother and stated that she became a mother herself, she understood her mother better. Her defense attorneys sought leniency, claiming the act was unprovoked, and that Mack had been a victim of abuse, but also claimed that she instigated the abuse as well.
Mack’s defense attorneys have yet to decide if they will request her to serve her time in an institution in Illinois or in Colorado, where her daughter currently lives.