2 convicted murderers use power tools in escape

Associated Press

DANNEMORA, N.Y.

Two convicted murderers used power tools to cut through steel pipes at a maximum-security prison near the Canadian border and escape through a manhole, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday.

“It was an elaborate plot,” Cuomo said after joining law-enforcement authorities to retrace the prisoners’ escape route from the Clinton Correctional Facility in the town of Dannemora in the Adirondacks.

He said Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, are “two dangerous individuals.”

Sweat is serving a sentence of life without parole after he was convicted of first-degree murder for killing a Broome County deputy sheriff in 2002. Matt is serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the kidnapping and beating death of a man in 1997.

The two men’s adjoining cells were empty during a morning check, said Anthony Annuci, the acting state corrections commissioner.

“A search revealed that there was a hole cut out of the back of the cell through which these inmates escaped,” Annucci said. “They went onto a catwalk which is about six stories high. We estimate they climbed down and had power tools and were able to get out to this facility through tunnels, cutting away at several spots.”

The prison is about 20 miles from the Canadian border. Roadblocks were set up in the area, WIRY-AM reported.