Prison worker pleads guilty in escape of two killers

– Asked why he would not charge former prison worker Joyce Mitchell with conspiracy to murder her husband in connection with last month’s escape of two New York inmates, Wylie said Tuesday that he couldn’t use her word alone to convict her on such a charge.

Mitchell entered into a plea agreement that results in her admitting guilt to helping convicted killers Sweat and Matt escape from Clinton Correction Facility last month.

Sentencing will take place in September. Prosecutors had said that Mitchell had talked to Sweat and Matt about killing her husband after she helped them break out. Sweat was captured soon after and jailed.

Mitchell was accused in a criminal complaint of smuggling hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and a screwdriver bit into the Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Dannemora, New York.

Prison seamstress Joyce Mitchell was seen tearing up as she signed papers in court Tuesday.

So far, both sides have declined to say what that deal looks like or whether Mitchell might get a more lenient prison sentence.

Despite their botched getaway plan, Sweat and Matt managed to elude authorities for about three weeks. Mitchell’s lawyer told the Associated Press he is seeking a plea deal.

Authorities said Joyce Mitchell smuggled the hacksaw blades and other tools into the prison by hiding them in frozen meat she placed in a refrigerator in the tailor shop.

Thought Mitchell was said to have had a relationship with the inmates, Sweat did not confirm that he had sex with her, according to Wylie.

Mitchell changed the plea Tuesday under the advice of her attorney, Stephen Johnson. The misdemeanor stemmed for Mitchell’s alleged rendering of aid to Sweat and Matt to enable their breakout. They escaped from the prison by crawling through a steam pipe and emerging through a manhole cover on June 6.