Oak Park Woman on Trial in Bali for Mother's Murder Gets to Use Trust Fund to Pay for Defense

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A judge on Friday granted a request filed by the lawyer for Heather Mack, the Oak Park woman accused of murdering her mother while vacationing in Bali, allowing her to access Mack’s mother’s trust to pay for Mack’s legal defense.

But Cook County Judge Neil Cohen said trust and estate will not be “the goose that laid the golden egg” for the accused killer, reports the Chicago Tribune, and terms of access will be decided in a future hearing.

Trials began this week in Bali for Mack, 19 and seven months pregnant, and her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, 21, who are charged with the August murder of Mack’s mother at a resort in Bali where the three were staying, according to media reports.

The body of Sheila von Wiese-Mack of Oak Park was found in a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi at the St. Regis Bali Resort.

Mack’s uncle, William A. Wiese, is the trustee of von Wiese-Mack’s trust of $1.56 million, according to the Cook County Record. The motion filed Thursday asked for $150,000 of the trust to be made available for Mack’s defense.

The motion states Wiese hasn’t released any money to Mack for her defense, and that it is a conflict of interest for Wiese to be in charge of the fund because he is next in line to inherit the trust after Mack and her unborn child, the Cook County Record reported.

The maximum penalty for Mack and Schaefer’s charges is death by a firing squad, according to the Cook County Record and the Chicago Tribune.

More on this story from Patch:

• Teen Accused of Mom’s Murder in Bali Not a ‘Crazy, Cold-Blooded Killer,’ Says Lawyer
• Confessions Made in Bali Resort Murder of Oak Park Woman: Police
• Racial Slur Said to be Motive in Bludgeoning Death of Chicago Woman in Bali
• Trials Begin in Bali for Couple Charged in Oak Park Woman’s Murder

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DENPASAR, BALI, INDONESIA - JANUARY 14: Heather Mack of the US waits in a cell before her first hearing trial on January 14, 2015 in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. Heather Mack and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer are accused of murdering Mack’s mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase in the back of a taxi outside a luxury Bali hotel in August 2014. (Photo by Agung Parameswara/Getty Images)

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