PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — A prison worker charged with helping two convicted murderers escape from a maximum-security facility had discussed hiring them to kill her husband, a district attorney confirmed Wednesday.
Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said at a news conference that Joyce Mitchell had talked to inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat about a murder-for-hire plot involving her husband, Lyle.
Both Joyce Mitchell and Lyle Mitchell work at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, near the Canadian border. Sweat and Matt escaped from the 170-year-old prison on June 6.
Lyle Mitchell arrived at the state police barracks in Malone with his attorney late Wednesday morning to talk to authorities, the Press-Republican of Plattsburgh reported.
Investigators have no information that Lyle Mitchell knew about the escape plan or assisted in it, Wylie said.
Meanwhile, state police expanded the search for the killers beyond a 16-square-mile area of woods, fields and swamps where the manhunt has been most intense. Police stepped up roving patrols and were checking the hundreds, if not thousands, of seasonal homes and hunting camps in the region.
Officials said the number of law enforcement officers involved in the search had been reduced from more than 800 earlier in the week to more than 600 Wednesday. In Dannemora, the heavy law enforcement presence prevalent for more than a week all but disappeared by Tuesday, and roadblocks surrounding the town were gone.
State police said Wednesday that they have “no hard evidence” that Sweat and Matt were able to leave the area. But they cautioned that the lack of evidence doesn’t mean the escapees are somewhere near the prison.
Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence without parole in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy. Matt, 48, was doing 25 years to life for the kidnap, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss.
Joyce Mitchell is charged with helping the killers flee by providing them with hacksaw blades, chisels and other tools. She was visited in jail Tuesday by her husband.
Clinton County Sheriff David Favro described her as “composed” during the visit.
Prosecutors say Mitchell, a prison tailoring shop instructor who befriended the inmates, had agreed to be the getaway driver but backed out because she still loved her husband and felt guilty for participating.
She was charged last week with supplying contraband, including a punch and a screwdriver, to the two inmates. She has pleaded not guilty and has been suspended without pay from her $57,000-a-year job overseeing inmates who sew clothes and learn to repair sewing machines.
Authorities say the convicts used power tools to cut through the backs of their adjacent cells, broke through a brick wall and then cut into a steam pipe and slithered through it, finally emerging outside the prison walls through a manhole. Wylie says they apparently used tools stored by prison contractors, taking care to return them to their toolboxes after each night’s work.
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Associated Press writer Michael Virtanen in Albany contributed to this report.
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This whole comedy circus is taking place 10 minutes away from my place and at this point they are looking for anyone to put the blame on. I question these charges but then I am not there. I do believe that they escapees used her as a false flag and had another vehicle pick them up and most likely just after midnight. They were long gone when the guard actually realized that there were only balled up blankets in the beds. The actual escape was too well planned, I also suspect that they spent an half hour placing scent trails in a couple of places to throw off the dogs and keep the search going in circles. This area is remote and after midnight there is very little traffic so they would for the most part go unnoticed. When the governor stuck his nose into this it became political and now everyone has to save face.
This is the first I’ve heard of this theory, and it’s also the most credible one I’ve heard. It makes sense that they never planned to take her, that she was just a decoy. They basically used her to get the supplies and contraband they needed to carry out their escape, filled her head full of promises, and then left her holding the bag. I hate to admit it, but a part of me does feel very sorry for her.
I worked a a nurse for 30’years, and as a Nurse Practitioner back in the 80’s. My last job was in Reproductive Medicine Practice (IVF) for 8 years. My most recent highest income was around $40,000 annually. This woman who “taught” tailoring to prisoners made $56,000?
I don’t get it.
Depends on where you live?
The governor is doing what a governor should do. This is an outrageous event and those who screwed up should be heavily punished.
Teabaggers are rising to the defense of their fellow teabaggers while whining about politicizing this event.