Lyle Mitchell, Joyce Mitchell’s Husband, Speaks Out: “Can’t Stand By Her”

Lyle Mitchell, Joyce Mitchell’s husband, met with police this week and visited his wife for the first time in jail.

Lyle Mitchell Speaks Out

Joyce Mitchell was officially charged on Monday for allegedly helping convicted killers Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York on Friday, June 5. Mitchell entered a plea of not guilty on one felony count of promoting contraband and one misdemeanor count of criminal facilitation and is currently in prison. In the aftermath of Mitchell’s arrest, many questions have arisen as to the possible role her husband, Lyle, might have played in the escape.

On Monday, it was confirmed that Mitchell had sexual relations with Matt, and that Matt and Sweat had allegedly told Mitchell of a plot to kill her husband. Mitchell was reportedly planning on meeting with Sweat and Matt at a power plant nearby after their escape, but, as previously reported, suffered a panic attack and was taken to the hospital instead.

“She realized what this was going to do to her family. She realized that she loved her husband, Lyle, and she did not want to leave him at the end,” said District Attorney Andrew Wylie.

Lyle has not spoken to the press directly, but his attorney Peter Dumas gave multiple interviews, detailing the Mitchell’s evening before the escape.

On the night of the escape, Dumas claimed the couple left work together, “drove through town, stopped at the Chinese restaurant here in town, had dinner, drove home. As they were driving home Joyce said she was having some chest pains, some chest pains, some flushing in her face, so he decided he was going to take her to the hospital.”

Did Lyle Mitchell Know About The Prison Escape?

According to Dumas, Lyle did not realize until days later that his wife was involved in the escape, and was “in shock” after hearing the news. According to Dumas, once Mitchell came clean to the police and her husband about helping the escapees, she also told Lyle of the alleged plot to kill him and insisted that she refused to go along with it.

“She told Lyle she didn’t want to go through with it – that’s what Lyle knows at this point – and because of her hesitancy, she was being threatened by the individuals,” Dumas said.

Lyle is not a suspect at this time, and Dumas confirmed that Lyle has been helping the police in their investigation, both as a prison employee and now as Mitchell’s husband.

“Lyle still cares about his wife, but he realizes he can’t stand by her, that she’s kind of made her bed in this situation and he’s got to distance himself from that,” Dumas told Today.

Dumas also told reporters that when Mitchell began having second thoughts, Matt and Sweat threatened her husband, saying they could either get someone inside the prison to hurt him or hurt him when they escaped. Mitchell allegedly relayed all of this to her husband when he visited her in prison for the first time on Tuesday.

“He needed some answers. He was just blown away by what was coming out. The fact that she told him that these two inmates had a plot to kill him. She did [confirm the plot], but also had told him that she was not in agreement with it, [and] that she was getting threatened by the inmates at that point,” Dumas added.