A US man was jailed for 18 years Tuesday for brutally murdering
his pregnant girlfriend's mother and stuffing her body into a suitcase
outside a luxury hotel on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
Judges said Tommy Schaefer had been proven
"legally and convincingly" guilty and handed him the jail term for the
murder of Sheila von Wiese Mack, a killing that shocked the popular
tourist destination and was described by prosecutors as "sadistic".
The 21-year-old wept earlier in the hearing as
judges read out the details of the case but appeared calm at the moment
the verdict and sentence were handed down, an AFP journalist in the
court said.
The jail term was the same as that recommended by
prosecutors. But he escaped a death sentence, the maximum term for
premeditated murder in Indonesia.
The court in Bali's provincial capital Denpasar
was due to hand down its verdict later Tuesday in the case of Heather
Mack, 19, Schaefer's girlfriend and the victim's daughter, also accused
of involvement in the murder.
Prosecutors have called for a 15-year jail term
for the daughter, who gave birth to a baby girl last month. She is also
accused of premeditated murder, and could be handed the death penalty as
judges are not obliged to follow sentence recommendations.
Bali shocked by murder
Von Wiese Mack's badly beaten body was discovered
in a taxi outside an upmarket resort on Bali last August. After her
killing, the couple -- from the Chicago area -- fled to another part of
Bali where police arrested them.
Schaefer confessed to the killing during his trial
but claimed he was defending himself during a blazing row with von
Wiese Mack, who was unhappy that her daughter was pregnant.
Prosecutors alleged that Schaefer "blindly hit"
von Wiese Mack with a fruit bowl in a fit of rage after she directed a
racial slur at him. Schaefer is black.
While her mother was being murdered, Mack hid in
the bathroom and the couple then stuffed the body into the suitcase
together, according to her indictment. She maintains her innocence
The pair were tried separately.
Handing down the verdict in Schaefer's case,
presiding judge Made Suweda said he was "legally and convincingly guilty
of committing a premeditated murder".
Mack's baby girl, Stella, is staying with her in
Bali's notorious Kerobokan jail, where prisoners live in cramped,
unsanitary conditions and drug abuse is widespread.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune newspaper
in February, Mack said that she was "petrified" and revealed that she
was sharing a cell with 10 other women
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