- Heather Mack pleaded guilty to her mother's murder Friday during a trip to Bali.
- The mother of one is facing up to 28 years in federal prison when she's sentenced later this year.
- Mack contends she already served her time in a Bali prison and should go free – but the feds disagree.
'Suitcase Killer' Heather Mack has admitted her role in her mother's murder during their luxury holiday to Bali.
Appearing shackled, in an orange jumpsuit, Mack, 27, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Chicago to one count of conspiring to murder a US citizen in a foreign country.
"I plead guilty, your honor," Mack told Judge Matthew F. Kennelly.
Although the mom-of-one has already served seven years in a Bali prison for the 2014 murder of socialite Sheila Von Weise Mack, federal prosecutors have "agreed to disagree" with her attorneys about accepting time served. That means Mack faces up to 28 more years in prison when she's sentenced Dec. 18.
Mack's lawyer, Michael Leonard will continue to push to have time served in Bali taken into account as mitigation.
"She is not the person she was, she's certainly more mature, she's more empathetic, she's grown as a human just like we all would do over 10 years," Leonard told Insider.
It was nearly a decade ago when Indonesian police arrested Mack and her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer for the brutal bashing murder of Von Weise Mack during a luxury holiday in Bali.
Mack served seven of a ten-year sentence in Indonesia and was deported to the US. The FBI immediately arrested Mack in November 2021 when she arrived at O'Hare airport, and charged her with two counts of conspiracy to kill an American citizen while overseas and one count of obstruction. Mack travelled with her daughter Stella, now 8, on the deportation flight. Stella, who now lives with relatives in Colorado, was born in prison during Mack and Schaefer's sensational 2015 trial.
Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years for murdering Sheila and remains in Bali's tough Kerobokan prison.
Mack has been in custody for roughly two years at Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center, where she takes classes in anger management. When Mack is sentenced in December, she will have 25 months taken off her sentence for the time spent in federal custody.
Mack's change of plea was an unexpected about face. Since her 2021 arrest, she has held out for trial, which was slated to begin next month. Her contention was that she had served her time in Indonesia.
"I just feel like no matter how mad they (the government) are at me, I feel like right is right and wrong is wrong, and I already did my time," Mack recently told Insider.
In August 2014, Mack and Schaefer, 21, were charged for the horrific killing of Von Wiese Mack.
Early in the morning of August 12, 2014, Schaefer beat Von Wiese Mack to death with a heavy fruit bowl in her room at Bali's five-star St Regis resort, an Indonesian court heard. He and Mack, who called each other "Bonnie and Clyde" after the Depression era criminal couple, forced Von Wiese Mack's body into a suitcase. They later loaded the suitcase into the trunk of a taxi. They fled the resort when they could not check out of the hotel using Von Wiese Mack's credit card. Just the night before the murder, Mack's mother had instructed staff not to allow her daughter to use her credit card.
After more than an hour waiting for the couple in the heat, the taxi driver reported to management that the suspicious suitcase, which was wrapped in hotel linen, had been abandoned.
Police were alerted and discovered bloodied sheets and towels stashed in a fire-hydrant box outside of Von Wiese Mack and Mack's room. Several bags packed with Schaefer and Mack's clothes below were found discarded in the hotel gardens.
Schaefer and Mack used Tommy's passport to check into the budget Risata Hotel in Kuta after the murder. The next day, hotel staff recognized the couple from news reports and contacted police.
The pair were detained and in a police interview claimed that a masked gang attacked Sheila in a botched robbery. They had managed to escape, they told police.
However, CCTV footage placed Schaefer outside of Von Wiese Mack's room on the morning of the murder. He had a large object concealed under his t-shirt. Hours later, Mack asked the reception desk for duct tape.
Mack charged $12,200 for a business class flight to Bali for Schaefer, plus a single night at the St Regis to Sheila's credit card about a week before his arrival.
When he arrived, Mack snuck out of their room and they plotted the murder on the beach. Von Wiese Mack woke up to find her daughter missing and went to reception to demand a search of the resort. Mother and daughter had an argument in the lobby in front of staff and it was captured on security video.
Von Wiese Mack was dead within 12 hours of Schaefer's arrival and the man was texting his cousin Ryan Bibbs about the millions of dollars they would get from Heather's inheritance.
In Indonesia, Mack was found guilty of helping her boyfriend kill her mother while Schaefer was found guilty of murder. They had both escaped the firing squad.
Von Wiese Mack's brother Bill Weise and sister Debbi Curran were in the court to watch their niece admit to killing her mother.
"After almost nine years, we are very relieved that the mastermind of Sheila's murder had pleaded guilty," sibling Bill Wiese said outside of the court.
"It has been devastating to witness the corruption in Indonesia, which prevented true justice from being attained eight years ago," he said. "We are hopeful for a sentencing more appropriate to the premeditated nature of her crime."
Additional reporting by William Dwyer.
Andrea Dixon is writing a book about Heather Mack. [email protected]