Global Courant
An Alabama felon who escaped prison last year with the help of a prison officer who later shot himself in the head instead of being arrested has been sentenced to life in prison, authorities say.
Casey White, 39, addressed a Lauderdale County courtroom on Thursday after pleading guilty to escape in exchange for dropping a murder charge against Vicky White. He agreed to the maximum sentence of life without parole.
“I feel like the most hated man in the world. I loved Vicky and I wouldn’t drag her name through the mud for anyone in this courtroom,” White told the court, according to WHNT. “Vicky took me out because she said, ‘right was right. Wrong is wrong.’ The first person to show me affection. The first person to give me a hug in six years.”
“I apologize to her family because she said that was the only thing she regretted… leaving her family,” he added.
WHY CASEY WHITE WAS IN ALABAMA COUNTY PRISON IN VICKY WHITE EXPLAINED
Casey White, left, is seen in his last mugshot photo; Vicky White is pictured at right. (Alabama Department of Corrections; Lauderdale County)
The pair were on the run for 11 days after Casey White’s escape from the Lauderdale County Detention Center in Florence in April 2022. Police finally caught up with them in Evansville, Indiana.
Instead of being arrested, Vicky White, who worked as an assistant director of corrections at the prison, shot herself in the head, according to authorities. Casey White, who had previously claimed he wanted to be killed by police and who told detectives after his recapture that he had wanted to go down shooting, did not resist and surrendered.
Investigators at the Alabama prison would later tell investigators that Vicky White gave her alleged prison lover special treatment, according to Sheriff Rick Singleton.
“Detectives received information this weekend from inmates at the Lauderdale County Detention Center that there was a special relationship between Warden White and inmate Casey White,” Singleton said last year. “That relationship has now been confirmed by our investigation by independent sources and resources.”
ALABAMA PRISON WHO ESCAPED WITH FEMALE PRISON AND ROMANTIC PARTNER ENTERS PLEAD DEAL
Casey White arrives at the Lauderdale County Courthouse on Thursday, June 8, for a sentencing hearing in Florence, Alabama. (Dan Busey/The TimesDaily via AP)
Casey White told the court on Thursday: “We just wanted a new life together because she knew the truth.
“I can handle the truth because I know who I am. I chose this path. It cost me my life and freedom,” he added.
According to WHNT, members of the deceased 56-year-old’s family were in court during sentencing.
“On behalf of the state and Vicky White’s family, I want to express the tremendous impact that crime has had on this family,” said Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly. “Vicky’s mother wanted to speak, but is too emotional.”
At the time of the escape, White was serving a 75-year sentence for a violent crime that left a woman shot, a dog dead, and horrified his ex-girlfriend and her roommates after he burst into their home with two handguns and shot through the walls.
Global Courant
Mark McDaniel, attorney for Casey White, center, watches Casey White’s mother, Connie Moore, during a press conference following White’s sentencing hearing. (Dan Busey/The TimesDaily via AP)
Then in 2020, authorities say he confessed to the murder of Connie Ridgeway, a 58-year-old in Rogersville, Alabama, who was beaten and stabbed to death in her apartment in what White said was a murder-for-hire.
White is still facing trial on August 14 for the 2015 murder of Ridgeway. That trial was delayed in the wake of the escape, and White retained a new team of attorneys.
Michael Ruiz of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.
