Prosecutor: Worker discussed having inmates kill husband

Associated Press

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y.

A woman charged with helping two convicted murderers escape from a maximum-security facility where she worked had discussed having them 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 killing her husband, Lyle, who also works at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, near the Canadian border.

Sweat and Matt escaped from the 170-year-old prison June 6 and remain on the lam. Joyce Mitchell, a prison tailoring shop instructor who befriended the inmates, was arrested June 12.

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.