TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
American murder defendant sobs before trial
On trial: US nationals Heather Louise Mack (right) and Tommy Schaefer (center) walk to the courtroom in Denpasar, Bali, on Wednesday
Change Size
On trial:: US nationals Heather Louise Mack (right) and Tommy Schaefer (center) walk to the courtroom in Denpasar, Bali, on Wednesday. Both are standing trial on charges of killing Mackâs mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, at a hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali, in August last year. (JP/Zul Trio Anggono) (right) and Tommy Schaefer (center) walk to the courtroom in Denpasar, Bali, on Wednesday. Both are standing trial on charges of killing Mackâs mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, at a hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali, in August last year. (JP/Zul Trio Anggono)
O
span class="inline inline-center">On trial: US nationals Heather Louise Mack (right) and Tommy Schaefer (center) walk to the courtroom in Denpasar, Bali, on Wednesday. Both are standing trial on charges of killing Mack's mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, at a hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali, in August last year. (JP/Zul Trio Anggono)
Tommy Schaefer, 21, cried silently as the prosecutor escorted him into the courtroom for his second hearing at Denpasar District Court on Wednesday.
Sitting in the defendant's chair prior to the judge entering the courtroom, Schaefer continued to cry.
The American stands accused of murdering his girlfriend's mother and could face the death penalty. In the first court hearing last week, Schaefer and his girlfriend, Heather Lois Mack, 19, were charged under Article 340 of the Criminal Code on premeditated murder.
Once the hearing started, Schaefer stopped crying. Wednesday's court session was held to hear the response of the defendant's lawyer to the indictment read out by prosecutors last week. Schaefer's lawyer, Iswahyudi, said the indictment was unclear and contained a factual error.
In the indictment, the prosecutor stated that Schaefer, who was staying in room 616 of The St. Regis hotel, went to room 616 on the day of the murder. However, it should have stated that Schaefer went to room 317, where Mack and her mother were staying and where the murder took place.
'How could Tommy Schaefer, who was in room 616, go to room 616? So, who was in room 317?' asked Iswahyudi
The lawyer asked the judge to return the indictment to the prosecutors. 'The indictment is unexamined, unclear and erroneous, so it is null and void,' Iswahyudi said.
The same statement was also conveyed by Mack's lawyer, Novi Wirani, during the former's hearing, which took place after Schaefer's with the same presiding judge. 'An indictment should be made carefully, clearly and completely, as required by law, as an indictment will determine someone's fate, whether they are guilty or not,' Novi stated.
Presiding judge Made Suweda asked the prosecutor to respond in the next session, on Wednesday next week.
Schaefer and Mack, who are expecting a baby girl on April 1, are accused of murdering Mack's mother, 62-year-old American, Sheila Ann von Weise-Mack. The victim's body was found in a suitcase allegedly put in a taxi trunk on Aug. 12 by the young couple outside the luxury hotel in Nusa Dua where the three had been vacationing.
Mack and Schaefer left the hotel via the beach and were arrested on Aug. 13, one day after the murder, at Risata Bali Resort in Kuta, where they had stayed for the night.
From the indictment read by the prosecutor last week, it was revealed that the murder was triggered by the mother's rejection of Mack and Schaefer's relationship. Mack reportedly had asked Schaefer to find a hit man to kill her mother before the incident took place.
'Heather Lois Mack wanted her mother, Sheila Ann von Weise-Mack, to die and asked Tommy Schaefer to find people to kill her mother for US$50,000,' prosecutor Eddy Artha Wijaya said in the indictment last week.
Mack and her mother had been vacationing in Bali since Aug. 4 and stayed in a hotel in Seminyak. On Aug. 9, they moved to The St. Regis Bali Resort in Nusa Dua and planned to stay there for another five days, before leaving Bali on Aug. 15.
On Aug. 12, early in the morning, Schaefer arrived in Bali from the US without the victim's knowledge. Schaefer checked into the Nusa Dua hotel in room 616, booked by Mack. The couple went for a walk along the beach.
Von Weise-Mack could not find her daughter and a member of the hotel staff witnessed her crying in the lobby when she realized her daughter was not in their room.
When Mack returned, the mother and daughter argued when Von Weise-Mack found out Schaefer was in Bali.
The young couple apparently continued to communicate by text message planning the murder. 'In the text messages between them, Heather Lois Mack and Tommy Schaefer agreed to take the life of Sheila Ann von Weise-Mack by smothering her face with a pillow and making it look like a suicide attempt on the beach,' Eddy said.
