Tommy Schaefer at his his trial on charges of murder at a court in Denpasar on Indonesia's resort island of Bali.(Photo: Sonny Tumbelaka, AFP/Getty Images)
An American couple were jailed by an Indonesian court Tuesday after being convicted of murdering the woman's mother. Her body was found inside a suitcase.
The Denpasar District Court found Tommy Schaefer, 21, guilty of beating socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, to death in a hotel room on the island of Bali on Aug. 12 and sentenced him to 18 years in jail, the Associated Press reported.
Heather Mack, 19, Schaefer's girlfriend and von Wiese-Mack's daughter, was convicted of helping him and she was sentenced to 10 years in jail following a trial in the same court.
The case generated headlines around the world after von Wiese-Mack's body was found stuffed in a suitcase outside the St. Regis Hotel, where the three, all from Chicago, were staying.
"Taking into account Chapter 340 of the criminal code and other related laws, (the panel) declared that the defendant Tommy Schaefer has been legally and convincingly guilty of committing premeditated murder," said Judge Made Suweda, reading the verdict aloud in court, the AP reported.
During his trial, Schaefer said von Wiese-Mack was angry when she found out her daughter was pregnant, and tried to strangle him, leading him to hit her with metal fruit bowl.
Prosecutors said Mack sat on the suitcase containing her mother's body to allow Schaefer to close it. The couple put the suitcase in the trunk of a taxi outside the hotel and told the driver they were going to check out and would return, but never did prosecutors said, according to the AP.
The judge described Schaefer's actions as sadistic, but said his politeness and an expression of remorse meant he did not get a heavier sentence. The court decided to be lenient toward Mack because she recently gave birth.
Heather Mack holds her baby inside a holding cell before attending court. (Photo: Sonny Tumbelaka, AFP/Getty Images)
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