Arrested prison guard denies knowing of inmates' escape plot

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — A prison guard charged in connection with the escape of two killers admitted providing them with tools, paint, frozen hamburger and access to a catwalk electrical box, but claims he never knew they planned to bust out, authorities say.

Palmer, 57, became the second Clinton Correctional Facility employee to be charged since Richard Matt and David Sweat cut their way out of the maximum-security prison in far northern New York on June 6.

He said he gave Sweat access to the catwalk later used in the escape to change the wiring on electrical boxes as "a favor" to make it easier for them to cook in their cells.

Authorities say the inmates cut through the steel wall at the back of their cells, crawled down a catwalk, broke through a brick wall, cut their way into and out of a steam pipe and then emerged from a manhole outside the prison.

Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence without parole in the killing of a sheriff's deputy.

Away from his day job, Palmer was a bandanna-wearing rocker, singing and playing guitar and keyboard in Just Us, a band that covered such baby-boomer songs as Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" and Bon Jovi's "Runaway."