Fugitive's lover could be in prison 7 years

Joseph Spector | Gannett Albany Bureau

Show Caption Hide Caption Prison employee who helped New York convicts escape sentenced A judge ruled that Joyce Mitchell will spend up to 7 years behind bars for helping David Matt and Richard Sweat, the convicts who escaped from the New York prison where she worked.

ALBANY, N.Y. — A prison worker who aided the escape of two inmates at an upstate New York prison was sentenced Monday to 2⅓ to seven years in prison.

Sobbing throughout the court appearance, Joyce Mitchell begged Judge Kevin Ryan of Clinton County Supreme Court in Plattsburgh, N.Y., for forgiveness, saying she never intended to cause anyone harm in the June 6 escape. She pleaded guilty July 28 to two charges in connection with her efforts to help Richard Matt and David Sweat escape from the state prison in Dannemora, N.Y., near the Canadian border.

“If I could take it all back, I would,” Mitchell said, reading a two-page handwritten note on yellow paper. “I am still trying to acknowledge my actions and understand why I did what I did.”

The escape led to a three-week manhunt through the Adirondacks that ended with Matt being shot and killed and Sweat being captured. Sweat has been charged with escaping from the Clinton Correctional Facility.

Mitchell, 52, received the agreed-upon sentence as part of her plea deal. She had a intimate relationship with Matt and sneaked hacksaw blades and other tools to the pair to help their escape through thick walls and metal pipes.

Mitchell was expected to be the escapees' getaway driver, but she said she expected the inmates, both convicted murderers, would kill her if she showed up with a car that June 6 morning.

“They would have had the vehicle. They wouldn’t have needed me,” Mitchell said in a teary-eyed interview with NBC Today host Matt Lauer that aired Sept. 18. “I had no intention of ever showing up.”

Mitchell said she was afraid to stop aiding the men’s escape, which included a plot to give her husband pills to drug him and ultimately have the murderers kill him.

“I knew I was in so far that I had to just keep going along with it,” she said. “So when Mr. Matt brought me the pills, they were in my drawer at work. And I took ’em home, and I flushed ’em.”

Ryan scolded Mitchell, saying her story was not credible. He said she could have told authorities about the escape plans and protected her family.

“At any time you could have stopped the escape from happening,” Ryan said.

The state is seeking restitution from Mitchell for part of the high costs associated with the escape. A hearing is set in November to consider what Mitchell may have to pay. She was hit with a $6,000 fine on Monday associated with the charges.

Her husband, Lyle Mitchell, has stuck by his wife, and Joyce Mitchell cried in the nationally televised interview as she talked about her mistakes.

A prison guard, Gene Palmer, also has been charged with slipping Matt and Sweat the tools in hamburger meat. He has pleaded not guilty to a charge of promoting prison contraband.

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