PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — A guard at the New York prison where two killers escaped pleaded not guilty Wednesday to smuggling contraband to the convicts in the manhunt case that captivated the nation for 23 days in June.

Veteran guard Gene Palmer, 57, waived his right to a grand jury investigation in Clinton County Court on charges of promoting prison contraband, evidence tampering and official misconduct.

State Corrections officials suspended Palmer nearly five months ago from his $74,644 per year job at the maximum security prison in Dannemora, New York, near the Canadian border.

He’s accused of providing the escaped prisoners with a pair of needlenose pliers, a flathead screwdriver and tubes of acrylic artist’s paint in return for elaborate paintings drawn by convict Richard Matt, who was shot to death while on the lam. Palmer destroyed the paintings after the prisoners escaped.

Charges against Palmer also included allowing the inmates to wire an electrical box on the catwalk behind their adjoining cells, and passing along a package of ground beef that prison seamstress Joyce Mitchell, 51, used to smuggle hacksaw blades and other tools used by Matt and inmate David Sweat to escape on June 6.

Palmer claims he had no knowledge of the prison escape plan and did not know the meat package contained contraband. He has said the electrical boxes were enhanced by the convicts so they could cook on the hot plates in their cells. Officials said the convicts’ knowledge of the catwalk helped in their escape.

Mitchell pleaded guilty on July 28 to helping Matt and Sweat escape. A plea agreement sentenced her to a prison term of 2 1/3 to 7 years and a fine of $5,000. Authorities said she was scheduled to be the killers’ getaway driver but lost her nerve on the night of the escape. She claimed she cooperated with the convicts because she feared they would murder her husband, also a prison employee.

Palmer turned down a plea agreement and will now have his fate determined at a court trial.

The dramatic three-week manhunt ended June 28 when Sweat was shot and captured alive. Matt was shot to death two days earlier by customs police combing the woods near the Canadian border. Both were serving life sentences for murder.

Details for this story were provided by the Plattsburgh, New York, Press-Republican.