Wanted: New York state offers $100,000 reward for capture of 2 murder convicts who escaped prison

 

 

 

 

 

The U.S. Marshals Service issued federal arrest warrants Sunday for two convicted killers who escaped from a maximum security prison in upstate New York over the weekend.

The warrants charge Richard Matt and David Sweat with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, according to William O'Toole, a U.S. Marshals Service spokesman. The warrants clear the way for the federal government to involve its considerable resources in the manhunt.

Matt, 49, and Sweat, 35, who were both serving life sentences for vicious murders, emerged through a manhole cover 200 metres from the prison walls and made off into the night. The pair were discovered missing from their cells Saturday morning during a "standing count" of inmates at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, state police said.