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Cuomo says New York prison break convicts could be 'in Mexico by now' New York prison break convicts used contractors' tools to escape
(35 minutes later)
Related: 'They could be long gone:' tiny clues but vast scale in hunt for escaped murderersRelated: 'They could be long gone:' tiny clues but vast scale in hunt for escaped murderers
Two convicted murderers who used power tools to cut their way out of a prison near the Canadian border could be nearby or “in Mexico by now,” New York governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday. The two killers who cut their way out of a maximum-security prison in New York state last weekend apparently used tools left behind by contractors, taking care to return them to their toolboxes after each night’s work so that no one would notice, a prosecutor said on Sunday.
The intense manhunt focused on the fields and Adirondack woods near the prison in upstate New York, after the inmates’ escape was apparently hampered by a prison employee’s decision to back out as their getaway driver nine days ago. District attorney Andrew Wylie also said Joyce Mitchell, the prison tailoring shop instructor who is charged with helping the men escape, had agreed to pick them up in her car and drive off with them but backed out at the last minute because she still loved her husband and felt guilty for participating.
The inmates, David Sweat and Richard Matt, planned to have the now-jailed prison worker drive them about seven hours away to an unknown destination, district attorney Andrew Wylie told CNN. But prison tailor shop instructor Joyce Mitchell backed out of the plan at the last minute, Wylie said. “Basically, when it was go-time and it was the actual day of the event, I do think she got cold feet and realised, ‘What am I doing?’” Wylie said. “Reality struck. She realised that, really, the grass wasn’t greener on the other side.”
“One of the reasons that she didn’t show up was because she did love her husband and didn’t want to do this to him,” Wylie said. Wylie said there was no evidence the men had a “Plan B” once the getaway driver backed out, and no vehicles have been reported stolen in the area.
Even as hundreds of law enforcement workers stalked the rural area, about 20 miles from Canada, Cuomo said it was unclear if the men were still nearby. That has led searchers to believe the men were still near the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, where the manhunt was in its ninth day on Sunday, with hundreds of law enforcement officers slogging through mosquito-infested woods, fields and swamps close to the Canadian border in the search for Richard Matt and David Sweat.
“We don’t know if they are still in the area or if they’re in Mexico by now,” Cuomo said in response to a question at a news conference in the New York City suburbs. At the same time, Governor Andrew Cuomo cautioned that for all anyone knows, the convicts could be in Mexico by now.
Roads on the western edge of Plattsburgh were open only to local traffic and a state police helicopter was parked in a field where 24 hours earlier a contingent of 40 officers had marched into the adjacent woods on yet another grid search. Wylie said it apparently took a long time for the killers to complete their plan, working methodically between midnight and 5am over many nights.
While many local residents remained locked in their homes at the advice of authorities, the outpouring of appreciation for the search effort continued. A restaurant was urging people to tie blue ribbons around trees and mailboxes. “They had access, from what we understand, to other tools left in the facility by contractors under policy and were able to open the toolboxes and use those tools and then put them back so nobody would notice,” the prosecutor said.
“The locals have been awesome,” said Sergeant Barry Cartier of the Franklin County sheriff’s department, part of a crew from a neighbouring county working 12-hour shifts. “They come around with food all the time. We’ve got too much to eat.” He also said the men had been scouting out the tunnel system under the prison at night for the best get out.
But residents were very much on edge, with some saying they were keeping firearms handy just in case. Both men are considered extremely dangerous. The convicts used power tools to cut through the back of their adjacent cells, broke through a brick wall, then cut into a steam pipe and slithered through it, finally emerging outside the prison walls through a manhole, authorities said.
Sweat was serving a life sentence for killing a sheriff’s deputy. Matt was serving 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnap, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his 76-year-old former boss. Mitchell, 51, was charged on Friday with supplying hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and a screwdriver. Her lawyer entered a not guilty plea on her behalf, and her son Tobey told NBC she would not have helped the inmates break out.
Related: New York prison break - how two murderers escapedRelated: New York prison break - how two murderers escaped
The men used power tools to cut through the back of their cells, shimmied down a six-story catwalk, broke through a brick wall then cut into a steam pipe they used to reach a manhole outside the prison walls. Wylie told CNN that the two inmates planned to have Mitchell drive them about seven hours away, to an unknown destination.
Mitchell, 51, was arraigned on Friday on a felony charge of promoting prison contraband and a misdemeanour count of criminal facilitation. She is accused of befriending Sweat, 35, and Matt, 48, and smuggling in hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and a screwdriver bit to help the men escape. Her lawyer entered a not guilty plea on her behalf. Residents were very much on edge, with some saying they were keeping guns handy. But there was also an outpouring of support for the search effort. A restaurant urged people to tie blue ribbons around trees and mailboxes.
Mitchell’s son Tobey told NBC that she would not have helped the inmates escape. “The locals have been awesome,” said Sergeant Barry Cartier of the Franklin County sheriff’s department, part of a crew from a neighbouring county working 12-hour shifts. “They come around with food all the time. We’ve got too much to eat.”
Cuomo said there would be “zero tolerance” for any assistance the escapees may have received. Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence without parole for killing a sheriff’s deputy. Matt, 48, was doing 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnap, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss.
“If an employee was facilitating or an accomplice to this escape, they will be fully prosecuted,” Cuomo said.