June 10--Faced with spending the next decade in prison, a Chicago teen who gave birth while on trial in Bali for her mother's murder may have a local couple on the tropical Indonesian island raise her baby until she is freed, her attorney confirmed late Tuesday.
Heather Mack has cared for her daughter, Stella, behind bars since the child's birth about three months ago. Although she has pledged to keep the girl there with her for her first two years, which is allowed under Indonesian custom, Mack is re-examining her options in light of her April 21 conviction.
"She wants to do what's in the best interest of her child," said Michael Elkin, one of Mack's Chicago lawyers. "She loves Stella very much and wants to ensure she is in the safest place possible."
An Australian couple who live on the island and regularly help Mack with baby supplies and food are the likely caregivers. But there are other good Samaritans in Bali who also have come to her aid, Elkin said.
He said the decision is not final, as Mack awaits clarification of her conviction and sentencing guidelines. If the safety plan does happen, he said, the process would be gradual and done in the "least traumatic way possible" for the child. Elkin said it's very important to Mack that she gets regular visits.
Mack, 19, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after a three-judge panel in Denpasar District Court found her guilty of being an accessory to her mother's Aug. 12 murder. The baby's father, Tommy Schaefer, received an 18-year prison term.
Attorneys involved in Mack's $1.5 million trust fund case in Chicago are awaiting written clarification of her actual criminal conviction, which was delivered in a verbal opinion, to see how it will be interpreted under Illinois law.
At issue is whether she still is entitled to her trust fund now that she has a criminal conviction. Under Illinois' slayer statute, a person who intentionally and unjustifiably caused the death of another person cannot receive property as a result of the death of that person.
Cook County Judge Neil Cohen, who oversees the trust case, released about $150,000 to pay for Mack's criminal defense during her Bali trial, but he denied releasing further funds after the conviction.
Lawyers are due back in his courtroom Friday. For the first time, relatives of the slain woman are expected to attend the proceeding while in town for a weekend memorial concert held in Sheila von Wiese-Mack's honor in Evanston.
Three months before her death, von Wiese-Mack named her only child the sole beneficiary to the trust. But, von Wiese-Mack tapped her attorney brother, William, to oversee the money until her daughter's 30th birthday. William Wiese repeatedly raised concerns that the money is being used illegally for bribes rather than for legitimate attorney fees and a fair trial.
Von Wiese-Mack's relatives and friends are outraged at the sentences. Prosecutors cited the young couple's apparent remorse and recent birth of their daughter as reasons behind leniency. They had recommended a 15-year term for Mack, and are appealing the panel's ruling.
Her mother's battered body was found inside a large suitcase that the young couple left abandoned outside the posh Bali resort where the mother and daughter had been vacationing. Schaefer arrived separately, one day earlier, unbeknownst to his girlfriend's mother.
Schaefer, 21, of Oak Park, testified at his Bali trial that von Wiese-Mack, 62, was angry when she learned about her daughter's pregnancy and tried to strangle him, prompting him to repeatedly strike her with a metal fruit bowl. Mack testified she hid in the bathroom after the argument began.
Prosecutors said Mack helped Schaefer stuff her mother's body into the suitcase. The couple then placed the suitcase in the trunk of a taxi and told the driver they were going to check out of the hotel and would return, but they never did, prosecutors said. Instead, after being denied their passports from the mother's security box inside the hotel, Mack and Schaefer slipped out a back door.
Police arrested them the next morning a few miles away in a budget motel.
cmgutowski@tribpub.com
