Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label David Sweat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Sweat. Show all posts

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Second NY prison escapee caught

by Biodun Iginla, BBC News, New York

38 minutes ago


Second New York State prison escapee David Sweat is in custody after being shot by police, US media report.
They say 35-year-old convicted murderer Sweat was captured near the Canadian border.
His prison-break partner Richard Matt, 49, was killed by police on Friday.
The two murderers escaped three weeks ago from the maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora through the sewer system after using power tools to break out of their cell.
The spectacular escape set off a massive manhunt.
Sweat was shot and seized in the town of Constable on Sunday, Franklin County Sheriff Kevin Mulverhill was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
Sheriff Mulverhill said the prisoner was now in hospital, but added that he had no information on his condition.
Matt was shot dead near the town of Malone.
The pair had been making their way through rugged forests in upstate New York, stealing food and guns from woodland cabins along the way.
US officials have charged prison worker Joyce Mitchell with aiding the two inmates in their escape.

Prosecutors allege that she gave the men power tools that allowed them to saw through a steel cell wall before bashing a hole through a brick wall and crawling through.
Ms Mitchell denies the charges.
Clinton correction officer Gene Palmer is also accused of aiding the convicts.
Officials allege that he gave Sweat and Matt the frozen hamburger meat Ms Mitchell had used to hide hacksaw blades and a screwdriver.
Mr Palmer's attorney said his client had no knowledge that the meat contained the escape tools.
Matt was serving a prison sentence of 25 years to life for the killing and dismembering of his former boss.
Sweat was serving a life sentence for murdering a sheriff's deputy.
Manhunt timeline
  • 5 June: David Sweat and Richard Matt escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora
  • 6-7 June: Possible sighting of pair in Dannemora
  • 9 June: Search focuses on Willsboro area after another possible sighting
  • 10 June: Police close off Route 374 between Dannemora and Cadyville and search expands to neighbouring Vermont
  • 11 June: Police dogs find food wrapper and footprint at suspected camp site near Dannemora
  • 15 June: Prison worker Joyce Mitchell pleads not guilty to aiding the prisoners
  • 24 June: Prison worker Gene Palmer charged with aiding the prisoners
  • 25 June: Richard Matt is shot and killed near the Canadian border
  • 27 June: David Sweat shot and captured near Canadian border
  •  

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Missing New York prisoners: Police hunt after 'sightings'

by Biodun Iginla, BBC News, New York

1 hour ago


Police have launched a major search operation after a reported sighting of two convicted killers who escaped from a prison in New York state.
Richard Matt and David Sweat went missing from the prison in Dannemora, near the Canadian border, on 6 June.
Officers descended on the hamlet of Friendship, 300 miles (480km) to the south, near the border with Pennsylvania.
Officers were also looking at another site in a neighbouring county.
Police said they were responding to a sighting in Friendship of two men walking along a railway.
They reportedly searched every vehicle along the Interstate 86 road and ordered all residents to stay indoors overnight.
Much of the search appeared to centre on dense woodland, with nearly 150 police officers involved.
Police said there had also been a sighting matching the men's description a week ago in Steuben County, New York, which is next to Allegany County, where Friendship is located.
Another search took place in Steuben County, focusing on a building site in the town of Erwin.

Matt, 49, was convicted of the kidnap, torture and dismemberment of his former boss, whose body was found in pieces in a river.
Sweat, 35, was serving life for his part in the killing of a sheriff's deputy who witnessed stolen guns being handled.
They cut through brick and steel at the Clinton Correctional Facility, before crawling through an underground pipe.
They then emerged from a manhole outside the prison's 40-foot (12-metre) walls.

They left a taunting note for prison authorities to find.
Workshop instructor Joyce Mitchell, 51, has appeared in court accused of befriending the two men and giving them contraband.
She also planned to be the pair's getaway driver, but changed her mind at the last minute, investigators say.