DANNEMORA, N.Y. (AP) – A convicted murderer who broke out of prison and went on the run for more than three weeks before being shot and captured has told police that he and a fellow escapee conducted a practice run the night before their daring breakout, a district attorney said.
Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said David Sweat, 35, told police from his Albany Medical Center hospital bed that he masterminded the June 6 breakout from Clinton Correctional Facility and began working on it in January.
The escape by Sweat and 49-year-old Richard Matt launched a massive 23-day manhunt amid the rugged northern New York terrain involving more than 1,100 law enforcement officers.
Matt was shot and killed by a border patrol officer June 26 in Malone. Sweat was wounded Sunday by a state trooper near the Canadian border. He was listed in fair condition Wednesday.
Wylie said Sweat claimed he used only a hacksaw blade – not power tools, as officials had reported – to cut holes in the steel walls of his and Richard Matt’s cells as well as a 24-inch steam pipe they crawled through.