An employee of New York's Clinton Correctional Facility has pleaded guilty to assisting in the escape of two convicted killers.
Joyce Mitchell, who worked as a tailor shop instructor at the facility, said she smuggled hacksaw blades inside frozen hamburger meat to inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat prior to their June 6 escape, according to the Associated Press.
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After leaving the northern New York state facility, the pair of convicts were on the run until Matt was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent near Canada on June 26. Sweat was shot and captured alive two days later.
Officials said Mitchell, 51, became close to Sweat and Matt while she assisted them, smuggling blades and assorted tools to help them break out of the facility. An anonymous law enforcement source told CNN in June that Mitchell was initially planning to act as their getaway driver, but got cold feet at the last minute.
Mitchell sobbed in court Tuesday while pleading guilty to charges of first-degree promoting prison contraband, a felony, and misdemeanor fourth-degree criminal facilitation, the AP reports. She faces a sentence of up to seven years in prison.
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