Murder plot revealed as search area grows

Prosecutor says prison worker accused of helping 2 inmates escape talked to them about killing her husband for her

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — A prison worker charged with helping two convicted murderers escape from a maximumsecurity facility had discussed with them a murder-for-hire plot involving her husband, a district attorney confirmed Wednesday.

Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said at a news conference that Joyce Mitchell talked to inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat about the possibility of them killing her husband, Lyle.

Both Joyce Mitchell and Lyle Mitchell work at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.

Meanwhile, state police expanded the search for the killers beyond a 41-square-kilometre area of woods, fields and swamps where the manhunt has been most intense.

Officials said the number of law enforcement officers involved in the search had been reduced from more than 800 earlier in the week to more than 600 Wednesday. Roadblocks along the road leading into Dannemora had been removed while more roving patrols were added in the area around the prison, officials said.

Sweat and Matt escaped June 6 from the 170-year-old prison near the Canadian border.

Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence without parole in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy. Matt, 48, was doing 25 years to life for the kidnap, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss.

Joyce Mitchell is charged with helping the killers flee by providing them with hacksaw blades, chisels and other tools. She was visited in jail Tuesday by her husband.

Clinton County Sheriff David Favro described Joyce Mitchell as “composed” during the visit.

Prosecutors say Mitchell, a prison tailoring shop instructor who befriended the inmates, had agreed to be the getaway driver but backed out because she still loved her husband and felt guilty for participating.