The husband of Joyce Mitchell, the woman who helped two murderers escape the maximum security prison in upstate New York, feels betrayed, lost and is “looking for his life again,” according to his attorney.
Lyle Mitchell had no clue his wife was involved in the elaborate prison break when the couple was first questioned by police, said his attorney Peter Dumas.
Only two days after the escape did his client realized “that something is going on here,” and confronted his wife, who warned him that the escaped men had been plotting to kill Lyle, Dumas said.
The inmates “had a plan to do harm to Lyle. She doesn’t agree with that. She doesn’t want Lyle hurt, and I think that some threats were made to her from the inmates at that point,” according to Dumas.
Joyce Mitchell is behind bars, accused of sneaking hacksaw blades, chisels, drill bits, a punch and other contraband into the convicts’ hands, but the tools did not come for Lyle Mitchell’s garage. He did an inventory and none were missing, Dumas said.
“Apparently what he believes is she got them at the store,”he said
Police have asked Lyle to think about any unusual behavior in the days or months before the escape in hopes to get any leads, he said.
“I hate to use a cliche, but love is blind,” Dumas said. “And I think with him he was just so happy with it that they rarely fought.”
The couple spend a lot of time together, they had known each other for 21 years, married for 14 and both worked at the Clinton Correctional Facility.
Lyle loved his job and knew the two convicted murderers, Dumas said. When questions arose two years ago, that Joyce Mitchell had a relationship with convicted murderer David Sweat, Lyle did confronted his wife and the inmate.
“Sweat, had talked to him at that point in time because he works in the facility with her and said no, no, no there’s nothing going on,” Dumas said.
But there was an investigation into an inappropriate relationship with Sweat at the time and the inmate was moved out of the tailor shop in 2013 to keep them separated, said Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie
Lyle Mitchell is not standing by his wife and is not supporting any allegations of her innocence, but he wants to make sure she is not hurt, his attorney said.
“There is a big part of his life that he is wondering if it was a lie all the time,” he said. “There is a big part of his life that’s gone now, pulled out from under him.”
On Tuesday, Lyle Mitchell was face to face with his wife for the first time since her arrest. They spoke for an hour over a phone separated by glass, according to Clinton County Sheriff David Favro.
The couple raised Joyce’s son, Tobey, who was adopted by Lyle, Dumas said. Tobey asked Lyle whether he is still going to be his father,
“And Lyle said of course, I’ve been your father for 20 years, I’m going to keep on being here for you.”