New York inmate pleads guilty to elaborate prison escape

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/13/new-york-prison-escape-david-sweat-pleads-guilty

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A convicted killer on Friday pleaded guilty to escape charges stemming from a daring prison breakout in upstate New York that triggered a massive three-week manhunt.

David Sweat, 35, pleaded guilty to two counts of escape and a single count of promoting prison contraband in the 6 June breakout from Clinton correctional facility in Dannemora, New York.

Sweat was shot and captured on 28 June about two miles from the border with Canada. Days earlier, an inmate who escaped with him, Richard Matt, 49, was shot and killed by a federal agent.

The pair used hacksaw blades smuggled in frozen hamburger to break through their cell walls and cut into and out of a steam pipe to make their escape through a manhole on to the streets of the sleepy upstate New York town.

Related: New York prison break - how two murderers escaped

At the time of the escape from the maximum security prison, Sweat was serving a life sentence for killing a law enforcement officer after a robbery.

He is now being held at the Five Points correctional facility in Romulus, New York, built to house the state’s toughest inmates, and will be held in solitary confinement for seven years, said his lawyer, Joseph Mucia.

At his sentencing on 3 February 2016, prosecutors will ask the judge to order Sweat to pay a yet undetermined portion of the $79,841 in damages caused by the breakout.

Two Clinton correctional employees were charged in connection with the escape.

Training supervisor Joyce Mitchell, 51, was sentenced to 2-1/3 to seven years in prison after admitting to supplying the men with the breakout tools. She also was ordered to shoulder a yet to be determined portion of the cost to repair physical damage to the prison caused by the escape.

Correctional officer Gene Palmer, 57, has pleaded not guilty to charges, including an accusation that he helped Matt and Sweat get behind prison walls to hide contraband.

At least a dozen Clinton personnel were placed on administrative leave following the escape. The prison’s superintendent, Steven Racette, retired on 31 July.