Husband of Accused NY Prison Worker Speaks Out

'Do I still love her? Yes. Am I mad? Yes,' Lyle Mitchell says about wife Joyce
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 23, 2015 8:42 AM CDT

Only when Joyce Mitchell realized her husband could be harmed did she get cold feet in carrying out the escape plan of New York inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat. That's what her husband told Matt Lauer this morning in an exclusive interview with Today, revealing that he had no knowledge of any escape plot, that he was just as shocked as anyone to find out his wife was allegedly involved, and that he still has feelings for his wife, NBC News reports. "Do I still love her? Yes. Am I mad? Yes. How could she do this? How could she do this to our kids?" Lyle Mitchell told Lauer as he tried to describe how he has felt throughout the past couple of weeks.

Lyle says Joyce admitted to handing power tools over to the inmates, and that Matt even gave her medication to knock Lyle out so she could meet up with the prisoners after they had broken out and run away with them. But it was the realization that Lyle could be in danger that seemed to have made Joyce back down, Lyle says. "She said: 'I love my husband, I am not hurtin' him.' ... When it came down to her hurtin' me, that's when she said something was wrong. She said she was in too deep, she didn't know how to get out of it." Another revelation in the Mitchell-Lauer sit-down: Lyle says Joyce swears she didn't have sex with either inmate, though she did admit to showing "a little affection" to Matt. Watch the rest of the video to see what else Lyle Mitchell had to say. (More prison break stories.)

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