Convicted Killer David Sweat Gets More Prison Time For Upstate Escape
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- David Sweat, a convicted killer already serving life behind bars, has now been ordered to pay restitution and sentenced to additional prison time for the daring escape from a maximum-security prison upstate.
Sweat, who was shot and captured near the Canadian border in June after a three-week manhunt, apologized in court for scaring people in the area.
Judge Patrick McGill has ordered the 35-year-old Sweat, shackled and surrounded by guards in Clinton County Court, to pay $79,841 in restitution and serve 3 1/2 to 7 more years in prison for his November guilty plea to escape charges.
Sweat was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a Broome County sheriff's deputy in 2002.
He and inmate Richard Matt cut their way out of Clinton Correctional Facility on June 6, with saws smuggled to them by a prison worker who is now also doing time in prison.
The prisoners used the power tools to saw through steel cell walls and several steel steam pipes, bashed a hole through a 2-foot-thick brick wall, squirmed through pipes and emerged from a manhole outside the prison.
Authorities said the escapees had planned to drive to Mexico but ended up walking toward Canada when Mitchell backed out of giving them a ride at the last minute.
Matt and Sweat apparently spent more than two weeks together roaming the thick northern New York woods before splitting up. Authorities believe they traveled mostly at night and managed to procure food, a gun and other supplies from hunting camps and seasonal cabins.
Matt was shot dead June 26 and Sweat was shot and captured two days later, ending the 23-day manhunt. Matt, 49, had been doing 25 years to life for the kidnapping and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss.
Before the escape, Sweat had been on an honor block along with fellow escapee Matt with special privileges at Clinton Correctional Facility. Prosecutors said previously that the new convictions could mean more difficult prison time for Sweat.
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