Gene Palmer allegedly provided duo with tools, art supplies
By Raif Karerat
A second state corrections officer has been charged with aiding and abetting the sensational escape of killers David Sweat and Richard Matt from Clinton Correctional facility in upstate New York.
Gene Palmer, 57, is alleged to have provided the duo with tools, art supplies, and access to the catwalks behind the walls of their cell to do electrical work, reported ABC News. He purportedly snuck the tools into the inmates’ cell area by hiding the accessories in frozen hamburger meat.
According to the court documents, Palmer went shopping for art supplies at Michaels in exchange for “elaborate paintings” done by Matt in addition to information about misconduct for other prisoners. The documents state Palmer burned the illicit artwork after the pair escaped custody.
Clinton Correctional worker Joyce Mitchell supposedly enlisted Palmer to help her incarcerated sex partners break out of the sprawling facility, according to the New York Daily News.
Mitchell, who worked in the prison tailor shop, stands accused of putting hacksaw blades, other tools, and a screwdriver bit into the meat and then placing it into the shop’s freezer, where Palmer would allegedly retrieve it, according to Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie.
Sweat and Matt allegedly used power tools to hack through a slew of piping and subsequently traversed a series of catwalks to escape to the neighboring town, where they emerged from a manhole.
Authorities believe Mitchell planned to pick the two convicted murders after their brazen prison break, but lost her nerve, suffered a panic attack, and checked herself into a hospital instead.
The two convicted murderers remain at large, and investigators are also looking into whether the 51-year-old mother charged with helping the criminals escape had sex with other inmates at the correctional facility, ABC News revealed Wednesday.
Matt was serving 25 years to life for kidnapping and beating a man to death in 1997 while Sweat was serving life for killing a Broome County Sheriff’s deputy.