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[h=4]Escape update: Joyce Mitchell's husband tells his story[/h]The husband of the prison worker charged with aiding in the spectacular escape of two killers from a New York prison says his wife admitted her involvement to him just days after the men vanished. Lyle
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The husband of the prison worker accused of helping those New York inmates escape says he believes his wife, but doesn't know if he can stand by her.
Lyle Mitchell, husband of prison worker Joyce Mitchell, right, appears with his attorney Peter Dumas during an interview with Matt Lauer on the "Today" show, airing Tuesday.(Photo: AP via NBC News)
The husband of the prison worker charged with aiding in the spectacular escape of two killers from a New York prison says his wife admitted her involvement to him the day after the men vanished.
Lyle Mitchell, speaking in an interview aired Tuesday on NBC News' Today show, said his wife, Joyce, had suffered chest pains and he was with her at the hospital the night of the escape.
The next morning they turned their cell phones on and they "lit up," Mitchell said. Richard Matt and David Sweat had escaped. And state troopers wanted to speak with him and his wife.
They went to the police barracks, where police asked about a "package." Investigators said his wife had smuggled two hacksaw blades and a chisel into the prison.
"Mr. Mitchell, your wife is more involved than she is letting on," he said an investigator told him. On the drive home, Mitchell said his wife admitted aiding the escape.
"I asked her what was going on. She said 'I just — I did some things…and I got over my head'. I didn't know what to say. I was just…disbelief, shock."
Joyce Mitchell<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: G.N. Miller, AP)
Mitchell then said his wife told him that the men wanted her to serve as their getaway driver, and that "'there was a plan to kill you.' I said 'What?!'" She said Matt said he could provide pills to knock out her husband, he told Today.
"She said, 'I love my husband, I am not hurting him,'" Lyle Mitchell related. "She said, 'Then I knew I was over my head.'"
Clinton County District Attorney has said Joyce Mitchell told investigators she had a change of heart and backed out of the plot. Lyle Mitchell reiterated that on Today.
"When it came down to her hurting me, that's when she said something was wrong. She said she was in too deep, she didn't know how to get out of it."
Mitchell said he and his wife saw the men almost every day in prison. He said his wife told him that Matt tried to kiss her once or twice and that she had showed "a little affection" to him.
"She swore on her son's life that definitely, 'Never have I ever had sex'" with either man, Mitchell said. He said he considered their marriage to be strong until the revelations. He has visited her in prison and said he doesn't know if he will stand by her as the case unfolds.
"Do I still love her? Yes. Am I mad? Yes." he said. "How could she do this? How could she do this to our kids?"
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The search for two New York prison escapees continues. Authorities say they found items belonging to the convicted killers in a hunting cabin in North Country. Boots, bloody socks and a jar of peanut butter were among the items left behind. VPC
An intense manhunt was launched June 6 after Matt, 48, and Sweat, 35, fled Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora by cutting through a wall and some pipes and tunnels, then crawling out of a manhole blocks outside the prison walls.
It was the first escape from maximum security in the prison's 150 years. Lyle Mitchell has denied any knowledge of the plan. His wife is being held on charges of aiding the men.
This week the manhunt was focused on woods 20 miles west of the prison after "evidence was developed that the suspects may have spent time in a seasonal hunting camp in this area," state police said.
On Monday, a state police spokesman, Major Charles Guess, would not reveal the results of DNA tests taken at the site. 'We are not prepared to release that evidence at the current time in order to not jeopardized the investigation," he said.
USA TODAY
Reports: DNA of escapees found in burglarized cabin
Prison-issue underwear was among the items recovered, an official told the New York Times. Tests showed the fugitives had been in the cabin within the previous 48 hours.
Citing unidentified sources, the Plattsburgh Press-Republican reported Monday that authorities also found boots, bloody socks, toiletries, a water jug and an opened jar of peanut butter. CNN reported the boot find Tuesday.
The Press-Republican's sources also said that the hunting camp is owned by a group of corrections officers but that there was no indication that Matt and Sweat were told of its whereabouts. They had apparently followed an abandoned rail bed and power lines after fleeing the prison.
New York state is offering a reward of $50,000 for information that leads to the capture of either suspect ($100,000 for both), police said. The U.S. Marshals Service placed Sweat and Matt on its 15 Most Wanted Fugitives List and is offering a $25,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of either suspect.
Veteran correction officer Gene Palmer, who worked on the "honor block" where the killers were held, has been put on administrative leave but has not been charged, his attorney said.
Matt was serving 25 years to life for kidnapping, dismembering and killing his former boss in 1997. Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for killing a sheriff's deputy.
This pair of photos shows Harold Frank Freshwater, left, in a Feb. 26, 1959 Ohio State Reformatory photo released by the U.S. Marshals Service, and right, in a May 4, 2015, booking photo released by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. Freshwater, 79, of Akron, Ohio, was arrested by U.S. Marshals on May 4, 2015, in Melbourne, Fla. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing a pedestrian with his car in 1957. Freshwater initially received a suspended sentence but was imprisoned in 1959 for a parole violation. He fled a prison farm in northwest Ohio later that year. Authorities eventually traced Freshwater to his Fla. home.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: AP)
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