PLATTSBURGH , N.Y., July 28 (UPI) -- Joyce Mitchell, the prison seamstress accused of helping two convicted murderers escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York, pleaded guilty on Tuesday.
Mitchell pleaded guilty to first-degree promoting prison contraband and fourth-degree criminal facilitation.
As per the plea agreement, pending a judge's approval, Mitchell, 51, will serve a prison imprisonment range of about two years up to 7 years. She will also spend a year in local jail served concurrently, pay a $5,000 fine, lose her teaching license and was given an order that she must cooperate with authorities.
A judge will sentence Mitchell on Sept. 28.
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Mitchell was accused of helping David Sweat, 35, and Richard Matt, 49, escape from the prison June 6 by passing them tools hidden inside frozen hamburger meat. She was reportedly going to meet the two men after they left the prison and drive them to a second destination, but she backed out at the last minute.
"She realizes that she made a horrible mistake," Stephen Johnston, Mitchell's attorney, said at a press conference.
Johnston added that Matt made Mitchell feel "good about herself. Better than she had for a period of time. She was swept off her feet a bit."
Mitchell was transferred from Rensselaer County Jail outside Albany, N.Y., to Clinton County Jail in Plattsburgh earlier this month.
The men headed north towards Canada, prompting a massive, weeks-long manhunt. Matt was shot dead by police on June 26, and Sweat was shot and arrested by police two days later.
Mitchell is being held on $110,000 bail or $220,000 bond, awaiting trial.
Danielle Haynes contributed to this report.
