Clinton Co. DA to Provide Update on Prison Break Investigation

He appeared in court wearing a green prison jumpsuit with his arm in a sling. Sweat was shot twice during his capture, CNN reported.

A convicted murderer who busted out of a New York prison was indicted Thursday on escape charges – and the prosecutor said the case could go to trial. Matt, 48, was shot and killed June 26, while Sweat was captured by New York State Police two days later.

Mitchell, who worked in the prison tailor shop with the inmates, has pleaded guilty to first-degree promoting prison contraband, a felony, and fourth-degree criminal facilitation, a misdemeanor, for the help she gave the inmates, including smuggling hacksaw blades to them in packages of frozen hamburger. He is serving a life sentence for the murder of Broome County Sheriff’s deputy Kevin Tarsia in 2002. WPTZ.com will livestream Wylie’s press conference.

If convicted, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision will likely be able to impose tougher prison conditions on Sweat, Wylie said. She admitted she planned to flee with Matt and Sweat, who may have intended to kill her husband, a guard at the same prison, but backed out at the last minute. After a failed attempt to break through a concrete wall at the end of a piece of tunnel that led outside, the two escaped by crawling through a heating system, usually too hot to touch, that had been turned off for the season.

Joyce Mitchell appears before a judge in Plattsburgh, N.Y., on June 15.

As per the plea agreement, pending a judge’s approval, Mitchell, 51, will serve a prison imprisonment range of about two years up to seven years.

Another prison worker accused of helping with the escape, Gene Palmer, rejected a plea deal.

At least a dozen Clinton personnel have been placed on administrative leave following the escape.