New York inmate David Sweat indicted for prison escape

David Sweat, 35, was dressed in a green prison jump suit with his right arm in a sling as he was arraigned in Clinton County Court.

Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said the fact that Sweat is a lifer has no bearing on his decision to bring a new case.

His breakout partner, Richard Matt, who was also convicted of murder, was shot and killed two days before Sweat was caught. He will be held without bail, but he is already serving a life sentence for shooting a sheriff’s deputy in 2002.

One of the convicted killers who led law enforcement on an intense three-week manhunt after escaping a maximum-security prison in upstate New York pleaded not guilty to an escape charge on Thursday.

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.

Matt was killed during a capture attempt, while Sweat was wounded two days later.

The prisoners used power tools to saw through steel cell walls and steam pipes to reach a manhole outside the prison. Sweat was hospitalized for a time before being returned to a state prison.

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. The pair broke out of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., on June 6.

Authorities have said they don’t believe there were any other people involved in the escape.