An Alabama felon who escaped prison last year with the help of a jail official who later shot herself in the head rather than face arrest, according to authorities, has been sentenced to life in prison.
Casey White, 39, addressed a Lauderdale County courtroom Thursday after pleading guilty to escape in exchange for a felony murder charge involving Vicky White's death being dropped. 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.’ First person to show me affection. First person to give me a hug in six years."
"I apologize to her family because she said that’s the only thing she regretted… leaving her family," he reportedly added.
WHY CASEY WHITE WAS IN VICKY WHITE’S ALABAMA COUNTY JAIL TO BEGIN WITH, EXPLAINED
The pair was on the run for 11 days following Casey White’s escape from the Lauderdale County Detention Center in Florence in April 2022. Law enforcement eventually caught up to them in Evansville, Indiana.
Rather than face arrest, Vicky White – who worked as the assistant director of corrections at the jail -- shot herself in the head, according to authorities. Casey White, who had claimed previously he wanted to be killed by police and who told investigators after his recapture that he had wanted to go down shooting, put up no resistance and surrendered.
Investigators at the Alabama county jail would later tell investigators that Vicky White gave her alleged jailhouse lover special treatment, according to Sheriff Rick Singleton.
"Investigators received information from inmates at the Lauderdale County Detention Center over the weekend that there was a special relationship between Director White and inmate Casey White," Singleton said last year. "That relationship has now been confirmed through our investigation by independent sources and means."
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Casey White told the court Thursday that "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 road. It’s cost me my life and freedom," he added.
Members of the deceased 56-year-old's family were inside the courtroom during sentencing, according to WHNT.
"On behalf of the state and the family of Vicky White, I just want to express what a tremendous impact that crime has had on this family," Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly was quoted as saying. "Vicky’s mother wanted to speak – but is too emotional."
At the time of the escape, White was serving a 75-year prison sentence for a violent crime spree that left a woman shot, a dog dead and his ex-girlfriend and her roommates horrified after he burst into their home holding two pistols and firing through the walls.
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 allegedly claimed was a murder-for-hire.
White still faces an Aug. 14 capital murder trial for the 2015 slaying of Ridgeway. That trial was delayed in the aftermath of the escape and White retaining a new team of attorneys.
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
