The husband of the worker accused of helping two prisoners bust out of the maximum-security prison where they both worked spoke out for the first time Tuesday, saying his wife "got in too deep" in the plot to help the convicted killer escape the institution.
Speaking with Matt Lauer in an exclusive interview on NBC's "Today" show, Lyle Mitchell said his wife, Joyce Mitchell, gave David Sweat and Richard Matt the tools they used to cut their way out of the Clinton Correctional Facility on June 6 and had agreed to pick the murderous pair up once they escaped.
But Lyle Mitchell said she backed out when the men gave her pills to knock him out so they could kill him.
"She said: 'I love my husband, I am not hurting him,'" Lyle Mitchell said. "She said, 'Then I knew I was over my head.'"
Joyce Mitchell, who worked as a tailor shop instructor at the prison, was arrested on contraband charges less than a week after Matt and Sweat broke out, prompting a sweeping but fruitless manhunt that has spanned across the Empire State, with more than 800 officers combing difficult terrain around the prison 20 miles from the Canadian border.
Authorities say she had planned on picking up the men, but she checked herself into a hospital the night of the breakout after having an anxiety attack. Lyle Mitchell said he didn't know about the escape until after he checked his wife out the next day, and didn't begin to suspect she was involved until his wife of 14 years was interviewed repeatedly by police.
"An investigator comes out and says, 'Mr Mitchell, your wife is more involved than what she's letting on'," Lyle Mitchell said. "I asked her what was going on. She said, 'I just -- I did some things … and I got over my head.' I didn't know what to say."
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Sources have told NBC News that Joyce Mitchell "thought it was love" with Matt and had been investigated for a sexual incident with Sweat.
In Tuesday's interview, Lyle Mitchell said his wife "swore on their son's life" that she never had sex with either inmate. But, Lyle Mitchell said she began helping the two prisoners when Matt "gave her a little attention."
"She told me Matt would give her attention, and she did not believe that I loved her anymore," he said.
Since the arrest, Lyle Mitchell has visited his wife in jail. But he said he's not sure if he can stand by his wife or testify against her.
"As of right now, I don't know what to think. I do not know."
Mitchell's interview comes as police track down one of their most promising leads to find the killers since the escape more than two weeks ago. Sources say that DNA belonging to at least one of the men was found in a broken-into cabin in Owls Head, 30 miles to the west of the prison, after a hunter saw a person running away from the dwelling.
Terry Bellinger, owner of nearby Belly's Mountain View Inn, said the hunter told him he saw a man run into the woods as he approached the camp Saturday on an ATV. When the hunter went into the cabin, he noticed two things out of place: a jug of water and an open jar of peanut butter on a table. Bellinger said the hunter went to his restaurant, where he talked to police for several hours.
"He was visibly shaken. He wanted a glass of water," Bellinger said.
Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence without parole at the Clinton County Correctional Facility for killing a sheriff's deputy.
Matt, 48, was doing 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnapping, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss.
