David Sweat: Escaped Prisoner Opens Up About Ditching Richard Matt
Escaped inmate David Sweat is in serious medical condition after law enforcement shot him in the torso while he tried to evade capture. Yet, the convict is opening up about former inmate Richard Matt, who he left behind a few days before being captured.
People reports that Sweat, 35, who was captured a little over a mile from the Canadian border in Constable, New York, told authorities that Matt was slowing him down. The pair stayed together for around two weeks while hiding out in dense wooded areas in upstate New York.
According to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Sweat also told authorities that the original plan was to kill Joyce Mitchell’s husband after they broke out of prison, and then drive to Mexico. Mitchell, a former prison worker at the Dannemora, New York, Clinton Correctional Facility, where the duo escaped from on June 6, was arrested earlier this month and charged with providing the power tools used for the inmates to escape.
“They would kill (tailor Joyce) Mitchell’s husband, and then get in the car and drive to Mexico on the theory that Mitchell was in love with one or both of them. And then they would go live happily ever after, which is a fairy tale that I wasn’t read as a child. But we all believe what we want to believe.”
Yet, the plan was changed when Mitchell failed to show up to pick the inmates up after they escaped. Working off of their wits, Matt and Sweat headed north by foot, with plans to go to Canada.
Sweat remains in critical condition at the Alice Hyde Medical Center after police shot the convict twice in the torso. Once captured, authorities noticed that he had several blisters on his feet. A few days prior, police found Sweat’s bloody socks in a hunting cabin.
Meanwhile, Sweat is not only facing more charges by authorities, but he’s also facing an informal charge of being a “snitch” by fellow inmates. Allegedly, Sweat “ratted out” other prisoners, one of the biggest mistakes an inmate can make, says former prisoner Louis Ferrante.
“The fact that he was a rat, ratting out prisoners… they’re going to be spitting on him.”
Consequently, Sweat will more than likely never return to Clinton Correctional Facility. Yet, this has no bearing on the additional charges he’s facing for escape, says Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie.
“There’s certainly no plea bargain that we could put out there. The Department of Corrections obviously wants information; they want answers as well relative to how this escape occurred. So on that end, whatever benefit that may be for David Sweat, only the time will tell.”
Matt, 49, was fatally shot earlier this month close to the Canada border after aiming a 20-gauge shotgun at officers and refusing to surrender. Sweat managed to elude capture for several days after Matt was shot.
David Sweat had been serving a life prison for murder after killing a Broome County, New York, sheriff’s deputy in 2002. Although Sweat is in critical condition, he is expected to survive.
[Photos Courtesy of by Darren McGee / New York State Governor’s Office / Getty Images, Scott Olson / Getty Images & New York State Police Department]
