A pregnant Chicago teenager accused of killing her mother at a posh Bali resort last August may be scheduled to give birth by C-Section as early as Friday. The announcement by Heather Mack’s Chicago-based attorney comes on the same day the 19-year-old testified in a Bali courtroom and pinned the murder on her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer.
Mack told the court that Schaefer, 21, killed Sheila von Wiese-Mack in anger after she threatened to kill their unborn baby. Mack said Schaefer beat her mother with a metal soup bowl after von Wiese-Mack made the threat in an argument.
“The blow was not so hard…and my mother was still resisting,” Mack said. “I asked Tommy to stop and then I ran into the bathroom.”
Mack said both she and Schaefer tried to revive her mother but it did not work. She said they panicked and thought about calling the police or taking the body in a suitcase to the U. S. Consulate. However, she did not explain why they did not do either one.
Investigators later found von Wiese-Mack’s body stuffed in a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi at the hotel.
Mack and Schaefer could face the death penalty if convicted.
Mack answered “no” when asked if she wished her mother dead. NBC 5 Investigates spoke by phone to someone claiming to be Schaefer, who said people should withhold judgment against him until the judges make their decision.
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Meanwhile, attorney Anthony Scifo is attempting to access Mack’s trust fund to help pay for her upcoming birthing expenses. A Cook County judge must approve the payment of any of those bills.
“So long as they’re reasonable, necessary and can be proven,” Scifo said.
Judge Neil Cohen said he wants Mack to be healthy but that he is “not going to pay for her to be happy.”
Cohen has raised concerns about alleged corruption in the Bali court system and is keeping a close eye on what ultimately gets paid to Mack’s defense attorney, Ary Soenardi. Cohen said he would authorize Mack's trust to pay Soenardi a lesser amount, $43,750, not the $52,428 that the attorney is demanding in the next of a series of payments previously determined not to exceed $150,000. There is now $74,720 left in the fund used to pay Soenardi's legal expenses.
“That doesn’t just concern me, it concerns me greatly,” Cohen said. “The expenses will be legitimate expenses for the trial of Heather Mack only.”
Soenardi wrote a letter to the interim trustee of Mack’s fund and said he has abided by Cohen’s request in submitting invoices. Soenardi also said he is serving “countless hours” trying to prove Heather’s innocence.
There is no word yet on what will happen to Mack’s baby or if the baby would be allowed to remain with Mack in prison.
“She is concerned,” Scifo said.
