Escapee once pledged he wouldn't be taken alive
MALONE, N.Y. (AP) — The latest on the manhunt following the escape of two convicted murderers from a maximum-security prison (all times local):
___
12:30 p.m.
The man who prosecuted Richard Matt's murder case seven years ago says the slain inmate swore back then that if he escaped he wouldn't be captured alive.
Matt was shot to death by officers on Friday, three weeks after escaping from an upstate New York prison about 30 miles away.
Louis Haremski was the special prosecutor in the 2008 case in which Matt was convicted of abducting, torturing and dismembering a businessman.
He says trial security was especially tight because fellow inmates had told officers there were plans to break Matt out of jail.
Haremski says the snitches had reported that Matt vowed he would "never be taken alive." Haremski says he was not surprised to learn Matt had been killed.
The search is still on for the other inmate who escaped, David Sweat.
___
11:00 a.m.
A sheriff involved in the search for the surviving inmate who escaped from a northern New York prison three weeks ago says the convicted killer could have a tougher time eluding searchers without his partner.
Inmate David Sweat is still on the lam a day after fellow escapee Richard Matt was shot to death by officers. Clinton County Sheriff David Favro says Sweat is likely fatigued and no longer has a partner to watch his back or act as a lookout while he rests.
Officers continued to focus Saturday on heavy woods 30 miles west of Clinton Correctional Facility as they looked for Sweat around the area where Matt was killed.
Favro says there is no evidence the pair had split up.
____
8:45 a.m.
Searchers who tracked and killed one murderer who broke out of a northern New York prison three weeks ago are combing the same heavily wooded area for the surviving escapee.
Officers continued to focus Saturday on rugged terrain 30 miles west of Clinton Correctional Facility as they looked for David Sweat, who escaped from the maximum-security prison June 6 with Richard Matt. Police manned roadblocks in the neighboring towns of Malone and Duane as a helicopter buzzed over the woods.
Matt was shot to death Friday by a border patrol team responding to a civilian complaint about a gunshot fired at a camping trailer. Authorities say Matt was armed and failed to respond to an order to raise his hands.
Police said Friday night that they had no confirmed sightings of Sweat.
Photos of the escapees:
