Lyle Mitchell, the husband of the New York prison worker who allegedly helped Richard Matt and David Sweat escape Clinton Correctional Facility, is breaking his silence, People.com has the report.
Lyle was in an interview with Matt Lauer for The Today Show and he is speaking about the matter for the first time. "I don't know what to think" was what he kept saying during the interview, puzzled of the charges against his wife. He told Lauer that he still loves Joyce but recognizes that she has done something wrong.
When asked about claims of a plot to have him killed: "In my heart, I know she would not have hurt me."
"I was at the hospital with my wife [the night of the escape]," he told the Today show. "She said she was having chest pain. We had already left and I turned the cell phone on and I have messages from my kids saying state troopers are looking for us."
He added: "I just couldn't believe it. She looked shocked. She said to me, 'They really escaped.'"
The next day, Joyce was invited by the state police and it was when she confessed of her participation to the escape.
"She said, 'I've got something else to tell you,' " Mitchell recalled. "She said their plan was they wanted to kill you."
He continued: "She told me that Matt wanted her to pick them up. He said, 'I'll give you some pills to give him.' She said, 'I can't do this. I love my husband and I would never hurt him.'
In a report by NBCnews, Joyce denied having sexual relations with either of the suspects but told her husband of Matt's attempts to kiss her 'a couple of times'.
"She swore on her son's life that definitely, 'Never have I ever had sex' [with Matt or Sweat]."
Their marriage had been generally smooth until the revelations, Lyle adds.
"We never fight. We're together, I'll bet you, 95 percent of the time. We work together, we never leave the house unless we're together."
He says he has not decided on testifying against her wife.
"As of right now, I don't know what to think. I do not know."
He added: "Do I still love her? Yes. Am I mad? Yes. How could she do this? How could she do this to our kids?"
