Lyle Mitchell, the husband of prison worker Joyce Mitchell, explained his wife's involvement in two killers’ escape from a New York prison earlier this month, saying that the men manipulated her and threatened to kill him if she backed out.
Lyle Mitchell, who also works at the Clinton Correctional Facility,
told Matt Lauer in an exclusive "Today" show interview Monday that his wife realized she had gotten “in too deep” with the inmates’ plot to escape after the inmates, Richard Matt and David Sweat, threatened to have Lyle killed.
“When it came down to her hurting me, that's when she said something was wrong,” Lyle Mitchell said in the interview. “She said she was in too deep, she didn't know how to get out of it.”
Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wiley told WPTZ-TV that Joyce Mitchell smuggled hacksaw blades and other tools to Matt and Sweat through hamburger meat delivered by fellow corrections officer Gene Palmer, who claims he didn't know about the plot.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Matt and Sweat were kept in “honor block” cells that allowed for televisions, lockers, and hot plates upon which the killers could cook food delivered to them through care packages. Because food packages are required to pass through metal detectors, authorities are still investigating how and why the contraband was not intercepted.
Joyce Mitchell was arrested and charged with colluding with the inmates and bringing them contraband, the Times noted. Although Lyle Mitchell denies the accusations that his wife maintained a sexual relationship with one or both of the inmates, he did tell Lauer that his wife doubted his love for her and was flattered by the killers’ attentions towards her.
“Do I still love her? Yes. Am I mad? Yes,” Mitchell said. “How can she do this? How can she do this to our kids?”
Matt and Sweat, who escaped June 6, are still missing.
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