The husband of the New York prison worker accused of helping two convicted killers escape said Tuesday his wife got too far “in over [her] head” to fully carry out the escapees’ plot.
Lyle Mitchell told NBC’s TODAY that his wife, Joyce, was scared she would be harmed inside or outside of prison if she didn’t go through with the prisoners’ plan. The two prisoners, Richard Matt and David Sweat, were allegedly planning to kill Lyle Mitchell after they escaped, but Mitchell said his wife felt “scared” and couldn’t go through with it in the end.
“She said, ‘I love my husband, I am not hurting him,'” Mitchell told Matt Lauer. “She said, ‘That’s when I knew I was in over my head.'”
Joyce Mitchell has been charged with providing Matt and Sweat with tools to help in their escape. The two have been on the lam for more than two weeks.
Joyce Mitchell denied having a sexual relationship with either of the prisoners in conversations with her husband, who says he still loves her despite the ordeal.
“Do I love her? Yes. Am I mad? Yes,” he says, according to NBC. “How could she do this? How could she do this to our kids?”
See the Path 2 Killers Took to Escape From a Maximum Security Prison
Gov. Andrew Cuomo tours the Clinton Correctional Facility, where two inmates escaped on Saturday, in Dannemora, N.Y. on June 6, 2015.Darren McGee—Office of the Governor of New YorkA man-made hole in the wall of the escaped inmates' cell at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y. on June 6, 2015.Darren McGee—Office of the Governor of New YorkThe industrial area where inmates escaped to from a hole in their cell at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y. on June 6, 2015.Darren McGee—Office of the Governor of New YorkGov. Andrew Cuomo tours the escape route taken by two prisoners at the Clinton Correctional Facility on Saturday, in Dannemora, N.Y. on June 6, 2015.Darren McGee—Office of the Governor of New YorkGov. Andrew Cuomo tours the escape route taken by two prisoners at the Clinton Correctional Facility on Saturday, in Dannemora, N.Y. on June 6, 2015.Darren McGee—Office of the Governor of New YorkGov. Andrew Cuomo tours the escape route taken by two prisoners at the Clinton Correctional Facility on Saturday, in Dannemora, N.Y. on June 6, 2015.Darren McGee—Office of the Governor of New YorkGovernor Andrew Cuomo tours the escape route taken by two prisoners at the Clinton Correctional Facility on Saturday, in Dannemora, N.Y. on June 6, 2015.Darren McGee—Office of the Governor of New YorkGovernor Andrew Cuomo tours the escape route taken by two prisoners at the Clinton Correctional Facility on Saturday, in Dannemora, N.Y. on June 6, 2015.Darren McGee—Office of the Governor of New YorkGov. Andrew Cuomo tours the escape route taken by two prisoners at the Clinton Correctional Facility on Saturday, in Dannemora, N.Y. on June 6, 2015.Darren McGee—Office of the Governor of New YorkGov. Andrew Cuomo surveys the manhole where two prisoners resurfaced after escaping from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y. on June 6, 2015.Darren McGee—Office of the Governor of New York
