Teen accused of murdering mother and stuffing body in a suitcase in Bali to be spared death penalty

A teenager accused of murdering her mother with her boyfriend and then stuffing the body in a suitcase in a luxury Bali hotel will reportedly be spared the death penalty.

American 19-year-old mother Heather Mack and her 21-year-old boyfriend Tommy Schaefer have appeared in Denpasar District Court to face the charges.

The prosecution has called for Ms Mack to receive a 15-year jail sentence but spared her the death penalty because “she has repeatedly expressed remorse and has a newborn baby”, the Daily Mail Australia reports.

Ms Mack has kept her baby, Stella, with her in her cell in Bali’s Kerobokan prison.

The prosecution has called for Mr Schaefer to be sentenced to 18 years in jail.

The defence will make its case next week, and will attempt to have those sentences reduced.

The couple are accused of bludgeoning Mack’s wealthy 62-year-old mother Sheila Von Wiese-Mack to death in a room in Nusa Dua resort in August last year.

Mr Schafer has reportedly admitted to killing the woman.

It is alleged Ms Mack then helped him stuff her body into a suitcase by sitting on it and the pair then loaded the suitcase into the boot of a taxi in the hotel reception.

The couple did not get in the taxi and were reportedly unable to leave Bali at the airport because their passports were still at the hotel.

The prosecution alleges the death was premeditated as a series of texts between the pair reveal alleged plans to suffocate Mrs Von Wiese-Mack with a pillow or make her death look like a suicide.