David Sweat’s mom says she’s relieved search is over
CONKLIN, N.Y. (WIVB) – Following David Sweat’s capture after three weeks on the run, his mother, Pamela, says she’s relieved it’s all finally over.
David Sweat and Richard Matt escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora on June 6, 2015, prompting a massive manhunt that involved over a thousand officers from state, local and federal agencies. Matt was shot and killed Friday, June 26. Sweat was shot and captured Sunday, June 28.
“I wish he would have gave up a long time ago,” Pamela Sweat said Sunday night. “And I wish he would have stayed where he was instead of leaving there with that guy (Richard Matt). I was kind of scared that guy was going to kill him when he got done with him. But I’m glad he didn’t.”
Pamela Sweat says the whole situation has been very hard on her and her family, but she knows it has been hard on everyone involved. “I kind of felt sorry for the security guards and stuff being away from their families,” she said. “I’m glad they caught him but I’m sorry for what the communities went through as well as myself and my family. I wish I was a genie and could make it all disappear.”
Sweat told reporters this whole thing should have never happened. She says she always had trouble with her son, David, when he was growing up, but she instilled in all her children that if you do the crime, you do the time. Pamela Sweat has expressed anger at her son for breaking out, and anger at the prison workers accused of helping make the escape possible.
Joyce Mitchell, who worked in the prison tailor shop with Matt and Sweat, is facing charges for allegedly providing tools to the inmates that helped them escape. She’s also accused of sneaking hacksaw blades to the prisoners inside frozen meat. “If she didn’t give him that stuff, the guys wouldn’t have got out. That’s the way I look at it, if she wouldn’t have given it to them, they wouldn’t have got out, and none of this would have been needed,” Pamela Sweat said.
Mitchell has pleaded not guilty to charges of Promoting Prison Contraband and Criminal Facilitation.
Another prison employee, Gene Palmer, is also facing charges of Promoting Prison Contraband, two counts of Tampering with Evidence, and Official Misconduct. Palmer allegedly delivered the frozen meat to the inmates containing some of the tools used in their escape. He also supervised the inmates doing electrical work in the catwalk behind their cells, according to officials.
According to New York State Police, Palmer pleaded not guilty to all charges Wednesday night, and was released after posting $25,000 bail.
For her part, Pamela Sweat had this message for her son after she received news of his capture this weekend: “I love you. Always have and always will. And if I get to see you I will.”