bibbs_12141602.jpg

Robert Bibbs enters the Dirksen Federal Building before entering his guilty plea on Tuesday. Bibbs is admitted helping Tommy Schaefer and Heather Mack as they planned the murder of Mack’s mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, in 2014. | James Foster/For the Sun-Times

Pothead tied to socialite murder just can’t stop smoking weed

A man who is awaiting sentencing for taking part in the 2014 murder of a Chicago-area socialite in Bali has been ordered to turn himself in on Monday — after a judge lost patience with his alleged drug use.

“It sounds like an addiction,” U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer told Robert Bibbs, saying of her patience: “I’m afraid I’ve run out.”

Pallmeyer said Bibbs’ marijuana use appears to have been “repeated and pretty much constant.”

Bibbs pleaded guilty to his role in the 2014 murder Chicago socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack at a resort in Bali. Bibbs helped his cousin, Tommy Schaefer, and Schaefer’s girlfriend, Heather Mack, plan the murder of Mack’s mother at the resort. Bibbs routinely texted with Schaefer about the murder.

On Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bolling Haxall asked Pallmeyer to lock Bibbs up, noting, “He apparently has not had a negative (drug) test since last July.”

Bibbs pleaded with Pallmeyer, saying he hadn’t used marijuana at all in March — despite testing results that indicate otherwise.

“I have not even been close to marijuana,” Bibbs said, telling the judge it can take several weeks for all traces of the drug to exit the body. “I have legit quit.”

Pallmeyer was unmoved.

The Latest
The man was found unresponsive in an alley in the 10700 block of South Lowe Avenue, police said.
The man suffered head trauma and was pronounced dead at University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
Another federal judge in Chicago who also has dismissed gun cases based on the same Supreme Court ruling says the high court’s decision in what’s known as the Bruen case will “inevitably lead to more gun violence, more dead citizens and more devastated communities.”
Women make up just 10% of those in careers such as green infrastructure and clean and renewable energy, a leader from Openlands writes. Apprenticeships and other training opportunities are some of the ways to get more women into this growing job sector.
Chatterbox doesn’t seem aware that it’s courteous to ask questions, seek others’ opinions.