Woman claims she framed boyfriend for murder

Discussion in 'Law & Justice' started by kazenatsu, Apr 22, 2018.

  1. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    May 15, 2017
    Messages:
    34,638
    Likes Received:
    11,205
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Heather Mack wanted to have her mother killed because she believed her mother had murdered her father, she claims.

    She, her boyfriend, and her cousin are now all serving time in prison for the murder.

    However, in a new video confession she says she decided to frame her boyfriend after he refused to help her hire a hitman for £40,000.
    She took her boyfriend's mobile phone and created "fake conversations", deleting the messages before he could see them, she now says. Then, after killing her mother, she told him that if he didn't help her clean the room and dispose of the body she would tell police he murdered her.

    She said she believes that lawyers may have pressured her boyfriend to lie and take the blame for the killing because if he didn't he would get the death penalty.
    Her cousin also pleaded guilty to aiding in the murder, but she says that he is also innocent and had nothing to do with it.

    Prosecutors claimed the three plotted to share the inheritance money.

    Mack has been sentenced to 10 years for being an accessory to murder, while her boyfriend has been sentenced to 18 years after telling the court he committed the murder with the metal handle of a fruit bowl.

    The cousin was sentenced to 9 years after pleading guilty to advising in the murder.

    So this brings up an interesting question. Is it possible her boyfriend actually didn't commit the murder? Could he have just admitted to the murder because he was afraid if he didn't he might get the death penalty, and possibly he was trying to protect his girlfriend at the same time? Or is Mack now trying to protect her boyfriend?

    She had already changed her account of the story multiple times and it will be hard for anyone to believe what she says now.

    The method of murder was particularly brutal, the mother's body was chopped up and put in a suitcase. It may have been difficult for them to believe a woman would have been capable of that. However, even if the boyfriend did the chopping, that still doesn't necessarily mean he committed the murder or knew about it before it happened. (And of course it could possibly have been the male cousin who chopped up the body, but there's no evidence he was directly physically involved)

    Here's my take on this. Her supposed "confession" is plausible. It's possible her boyfriend got blackmailed into cleaning up the mess. That would have created physical evidence tying him to the murder, then he could have felt pressure from the legal system to admit to a murder he did not actually commit.

    Look, you take three suspects that were involved in a murder, separate them and interrogate them, it's possible one of them feels like he's going to get sentenced to life in prison anyway so he might as well try to take all the blame to at least try to spare his girlfriend he cares about. The cousin would have pleaded guilty because he was only being charged with being an accessory to murder, and thought if he pled guilty he might get a shorter sentence (which probably didn't turn out to be true).

    When you have legal incentives for people to plead guilty to crimes they might not have committed, these are the sort of complications that could result.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2792542/woman-admits-murder-mum-blackmailing-boyfriend-bali/
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2018

Share This Page