Escapees had practice run night before breakout
One of two convicted murderers who broke out of a maximum-security prison last month told police they conducted a practice run the night before their daring escape, even poking their heads out of a manhole before deciding they were too close to nearby homes.
Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said David Sweat, 35, told police from his hospital bed he masterminded the June 6 breakout from Clinton Correctional Facility after beginning work on it in January.
The escape by Sweat and 49-yearold Richard Matt launched a massive 23-day manhunt in forested northern New York terrain involving more than 1,100 law enforcement officers.
Matt was shot and killed by a border patrol officer on June 26. Sweat was wounded Sunday by a state trooper near the Canadian border. He was listed in fair condition Wednesday.
Wylie said Sweat claimed he used only a hacksaw blade — not power tools, as officials had reported — to cut holes in the steel walls of his and Richard Matt’s adjoining cells, as well as a steam pipe they crawled through.
Sweat said he prowled the tunnels in the maximum-security prison from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. — after lights-out and before the morning head count — in the days preceding the escape, according to Wylie, who was briefed by state police on the surviving inmate’s statements.
Sweat claimed to have done all the work himself, saying the older Matt wasn’t in shape.
Authorities said the two reached the tunnels via narrow corridors behind cellblocks providing access to the bowels of the prison and were given access by a corrections officer who has since been charged in connection with the breakout.
On their practice run before the escape, the men poked their heads out of a manhole but decided to exit the next day through a manhole that was slightly more isolated. Even then, it was in the middle of an intersection just a block from the prison walls.
Officials have alleged that Joyce Mitchell, an employee in the prison’s tailor shop, got close to Sweat and Matt and supplied them with hacksaw blades and other tools. She agreed to be their getaway driver but backed out at the last moment, authorities said. She has pleaded not guilty.
Steven Racette, the prison’s superintendent, his deputy, Stephen Brown, and 10 other Clinton employees have been placed on leave, according to a state official who was briefed on the matter.
Assistant commissioner James O’Gorman will oversee the facility temporarily.
The Corrections Department said only three executives and nine other staff members had been placed on paid leave as part of a departmental review of the escape. It did not identify them. The department said it is bringing in new leadership.
Cherie Racette, the superintendent’s wife, told the Adirondack Daily Enterprise he was given the option of taking a demotion or retiring and chose retirement. She said he and two deputies are being made scapegoats by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Gene Palmer, a prison guard, was also arrested, telling investigators he gave the convicts such things as tools, art supplies and access to a catwalk electrical box in exchange for paintings by Matt. But he said he never knew of their escape plans.
Sweat had been serving life without parole in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy. Matt was serving 25 years to life for the kidnapping and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss.