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 David Sweat, the younger of the two convicted killers who broke
out of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, tasted another
day of freedom on his birthday as more than the 800 law enforcement
officers pushed ahead with a manhunt in the dense woodlands just
east of the Adirondack Mountains.
Sweat and Richard Matt, 48, were discovered missing from their
adjoining cells in the maximum security prison, about 20 miles (32
km) south of the Canadian border, at 5:30 a.m. on June 6.
Their elaborate escape plan involved cutting through a steel wall
and slithering through a steam pipe before emerging from a manhole
on the street outside the prison's walls.
"We don't know if they are still in the immediate area or if they
are in Mexico by now," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a news
conference.
Cuomo will announce a formal investigation by the state inspector
general into all factors involved in the escape on Monday, The New
York Times reported on its web site.
The governor added that while apprehending the men was still the top
priority, it was time for a thorough probe into what happened, the
newspaper reported.
New York State Police spokesman Beau Duffy acknowledged authorities
don't know where the fugitives are, but "we don't have any evidence
that they've left the area."
Based on the available leads, police expanded their search slightly
eastward on Sunday but mostly remain near a highway that leads from
Dannemora to Plattsburgh, about 14 miles away, Duffy said.
Joyce Mitchell, 51, who worked as an industrial training supervisor
at the prison's tailor shop, was due back in court in Plattsburgh on
Monday on charges of promoting prison contraband and criminal
facilitation.
Mitchell was accused of providing chisels and hacksaw blades to the
men, who were both serving time for murder, authorities said.
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She smuggled the tools to them about five weeks before the escape,
according to several media outlets, after an initial report in the
Albany Times Union, citing unnamed investigators.
Mitchell, who had agreed to drive the getaway car, had planned to
meet the men at a power plant near the prison, ABC News reported
Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie as saying. But she had
second thoughts and never showed up, checking herself into a
hospital for a panic attack instead.
She was told she would need a four-wheel drive vehicle to transport
them to an undisclosed wooded area, ABC News said, citing Wylie.
Wylie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Times Union, citing an unnamed investigator, said Mitchell had
agreed to drive them to a cabin in Vermont.
Mitchell has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted, she
faces up to eight years in prison.
She was transferred on Saturday to a county jail about 165 miles
away from the prison, where she worked to reduce tensions in the
facility. Many residents of the surrounding village either work at
the prison or have family employed there.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Frank McGurty and
Jonathan Oatis)
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