Joyce Mitchell destroyed deadly pills meant for her husband as part of David Sweat, Richard Matt’s prison escape plot: lawyer

New York Daily News
By Tina Moore | July 7, 2015

The prison tailor who helped two inmates escape from an upstate prison destroyed pills that one of the men gave her to incapacitate her husband in a plot to kill him, the woman’s attorney told CNN.

Lawyer Stephen Johnston said his client, Joyce Mitchell, was never part of a plan to harm Lyle Mitchell and had no ideas what the pills were but destroyed them.

Joyce Mitchell was supposed to meet convicted murderers Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 35, and drive them to Mexico June 6 after they broke out of the Clinton Correctional Facility. Mitchell had a sexual relationship with Matt and the convicts were planning to kill her husband, investigators said.

But she bailed on the duo just hours before the planned jailbreak after having a moment of clarity during a Chinese dinner with her husband, an official told the Buffalo News. Instead, she checked into a hospital, saying she was suffering a panic attack.

When the men arose from a manhole after drilling their way out of prison, there was no getaway car and they were forced to take off on foot.

...more at link
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/joyce-mitchell-ruined-pills-meant-husband-escape-plot-article-1.2283775

Autopsy: New York Prison Escapee Richard Matt Was Drunk When Killed In Forest

HNGN.com
By Irene Cabrera | August 06, 2015, 10:39AM ET

Richard Matt, one of two convicted killers who escaped from a New York prison and lead police on a three-week chase, was drunk when border patrol agents shot and killed him in a forest, toxicology reports reveal.

Matt had a blood alcohol level of 0.18 percent, which is more than twice the intoxication level for driving under the influence under New York law, said authorities, according to the Associated Press.

More at link: http://www.hngn.com/articles/116582/20150806/autopsy-new-york-prison-escapee-richard-matt-was-drunk-when-killed-in-forest.htm

NY prison worker pleads guilty in escape of 2 killers

SentinelRepublic.com
August 9, 2015 8:12AM



A New York prison employee has pleaded guilty to helping two killers escape last month.

Mitchell said she never had sex with Sweat, who was reassigned after rumors of a romance with him spread through the prison.

The brazen escape was compared to the 1994 hit film The Shawshank Redemption.

Matt was shot and killed by a tactical team of law enforcement officers in Malone on June 26, while Sweat was captured and shot in nearby Constable on June 28.

The statements, obtained by ABC News, offer the first detailed account of the incident in Mitchell’s own words. But she did and she’s paying the price now. “And then when she realized who she was dealing with, everything changed”. “I enjoyed the attention, the feeling both of them gave me and the thought of a different life”. “Who, me?’ when he turned to respond to Sergeant Cook’s order to stop”, said Guess. “He kissed me with an open mouth kiss”.

In making their escape, the inmates cut through the steel walls of their cells, climbed down a catwalk and through a steam pipe and emerged from a manhole outside the prison in Dannemora, New York.

In another statement, she admitted she passed notes, some of which were “of a sexual nature” to Matt to give to Sweat. Palmer is accused of helping give contraband to the inmates.

Mitchell said she left it in a freezer, and a few days later, the hamburger was gone. Authorities say she became close with the pair and agreed to be their getaway driver.

She said they were supposed to meet at midnight, and they were going to go somewhere 6-7 hours away, but she doesn’t remember where.

By accepting the plea deal, she waived her right to appeal, and she agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation by the state Inspector General’s office, which had staffers at the court hearing.

More at link: http://sentinelrepublic.com/ny-prison-worker-pleads-guilty-in-escape-of-2-killers/64889/

New York Inmates Allegedly Assaulted By Corrections Officers After Prison Break

NPR.org | August 12, 2015, 4:42PM ET
By BRIAN MANN

Dozens of inmates claim they suffered violence after the prison break in Dannemora, N.Y., earlier this summer. State officials say they have been investigating the claims for weeks. They will not say who perpetrated the alleged abuse, or who authorized the decision to move inmates housed near the escapees to other prisons or to solitary confinement. Two prison workers are charged with helping the escaped inmates, but no other prisoners have been charged.

Interview transcript at link: http://www.npr.org/2015/08/12/431959407/new-york-inmates-allegedly-assaulted-by-corrections-officers-after-prison-break

Prison worker Joyce Mitchell, who aided convicts' escape, gets up to 7 years in prison

FOX News, AP | September 28, 2015


July 28, 2015: Joyce Mitchell raises her hand during a court appearance in Plattsburgh, N.Y. (AP)

The former prison worker who helped a pair of murderers escape a New York correctional facility sobbed as she was sentenced to 2 1/3 to seven years behind bars Monday during her sentencing hearing.

Joyce Mitchell, 51, wiped away tears and apologized as Judge Kevin Ryan upheld the terms of the plea deal she reached with prosecutors this summer.

“If I could take it all back I would,” Mitchell said Monday, with her husband seated in the audience, looking on. “I can’t begin to explain how sorry I am for all of this, to my community, to my coworkers, to my family, to all the officers that were involved in this and were taken away from their families in the search while these two men were on the loose.”
[...]
Ryan was unforgiving in his remarks to Mitchell, citing the estimated $23 million in overtime costs incurred from the manhunt and the “large portion of the local population” that was “terrorized.”

He also spoke of the many law enforcement officers who came from all over the country to help in the frantic search to locate the violent duo.

“They traversed very inhospitable territory, never knowing if the next step they took in deeply wooded areas would be their last,” Ryan said. “At any time you could have stopped the escape from happening.”

More at link: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/28/joyce-mitchell-sentenced-to-up-to-seven-years-in-prison/