Joyce Mitchell‘s husband Lyle Mitchell visited his wife for the first time on Tuesday, June 16, since the prison employee was charged earlier this month for supposedly helping two convicted killers escape from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y.
According to CNN, Lyle sat with his wife for an hour, where they spoke over a phone. Lyle, who also worked at the prison, looked somber as he stepped out to visit his wife behind bars. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” his lawyer Peter Dumas told NBC News on Tuesday of Lyle supposedly supporting Joyce.
According to the attorney, his client added of his wife, “‘There’s no way I’m standing behind her.'”
Joyce is currently behind bars and charged with a felony count of promoting prison contraband and a misdemeanor count of criminal facilitation, after allegedly aiding the inmates, convicted killers David Sweat and Richard Matt, in their successful scheme to break out from the upstate New York prison.
Joyce, 51, was a seamstress at the maximum-security prison, where she supervised Sweat and Matt. She was suspected of having inappropriate ties with Sweat in 2013, and later, Matt. Joyce is accused of sneaking contraband into the prison and handing it directly to the convicts in what has turned out to be one of the most high-profile prison break incidents in recent history.
After sneaking the bits and pieces of blades, drill bits, and other contraband material to the inmates, Joyce was supposed to be the getaway driver for the two — until she got cold feet. According to her lawyer Stephen Johnston, Joyce has expressed remorse for her role in the prison break.
“As I said, she’s distraught, she’s very upset and very weepy,” Johnston told NBC News. A massive manhunt has been underway for the two convicted murderers since June 6.
