Alabama prisoner Casey White has been charged with the murder of corrections officer Vicky White after she helped him escape custody.
The 38-year-old ran away with the prison officer on April 29 and staged a well-planned escape from the law, swapping vehicles and using disguises as they traversed three states.
Indiana authorities have previously stated that Vicky, 56, died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head as police closed the net on the pair.
Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly announced Casey White’s indictment today after the wanted felon was captured on May 9 in Evansville, Indiana.
Casey White has been charged with her murder, but the indictment does not state that he shot her.
Court documents show Casey has been charged with first-degree escape ‘and in the course and furtherance of committing escape in the first degree, caused the death of Vicky White, who died from a gunshot wound to the head.’
He was arrested moments after his lover died, following the 11-day manhunt for the convicted felon and prison officer.
Initial reports stated that Vicky pulled the trigger as the car she and Casey were travelling in crashed into a ditch in Indiana, having been run off the road by police.
Casey White has been charged with the murder of Vicky White, who helped him plan his escape across the country. Casey is pictured at court in Florence, Alabama, with his hands cuffed and his feet shackled after his arrest
A coroner ruled that Vicky had died as a result of self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head after the two lovers spent 11 days on the run
Vicky spoke to 911 dispatchers in the moments before her death, and could be heard saying ‘Airbags are going off. Let’s get out and run.’
Officers then arrived at the scene, stating that she was still breathing, but in audio released by Indiana authorities the dispatcher claims they could hear her say ‘she had her finger on the trigger.’
In the initial confusion, they believed that Casey White had shot himself, and then requested a negotiator, before a second voice says that one is not needed.
Dashboard and body camera footage from Indiana showed the dramatic moment that fugitive Casey White was taken into custody and Vicky’s body was dragged dying from their car.
Footage shows Casey being dragged out of the crumpled car by his hands, as officers kneel on him to handcuff him.
His denim shirt is ripped, but he appears otherwise unharmed, with his black sunglasses still on his face.
As police approach the car, one officer says: ‘We need to clear some of this s***’ to get to her.’
Another officer, kneeling by the overturned car, says: ‘She’s still got the gun in her hand.’
One adds: ‘She’s still breathing. I can see her chest rising. Finger still on the trigger. She could pull that trigger again.’
A third video released by the police showed them searching a Ford truck, which the couple abandoned before switching to their Cadillac.
The escaped prisoner, standing 6ft 9 tall, towers over the Indiana officers who arrested him after the car he was driving was run off the road
These are all of the weapons the couple had in their Cadillac when they were rammed into a ditch by police, before Vicky died
The couple had just $29,000 of the $90,000 Vicky had withdrawn when they were caught by officers
Casey White was serving a 75-year sentence for multiple crimes when he confessed to a 2015 murder. Vicky White, who said she was taking him for a mental health evaluation, ran away with him on April 29
Casey White can be seen looking over his shoulder, as Vicky White lay dying in the car
An officer searches the vehicle, then tells his colleague: ‘There’s no paperwork. A little bit of trash and a charger and a Glock magazine loader.’
An Indiana sheriff said the pair were carrying $29,000 in cash, four handguns and an AR-15 rifle and were prepared for a shootout when they were captured.
The end of the manhunt left authorities trying to piece together what happened during the 11 days that elapsed after Vicky White escorted Casey White from a Florence, Alabama, jail for what she falsely claimed was a mental health evaluation.
She also told her coworkers that she felt ill and planned to see a doctor afterward, with the alarm only being raised at 3.30pm.
The inmate and Vicky White appeared to have had a ‘jailhouse romance,’ according to Alabama authorities.
As for her role in the escape, the sheriff said: ‘He was not forcing her. It was a mutual relationship.’
Casey had been awaiting trial at the Florence prison for reportedly stabbing Connie Ridgeway, 58, to death during a 2015 burglary.
At the time of the breakout he had been serving a 75-year prison sentence for attempted murder and other offenses.
White has confessed the crime, claiming he was paid to commit the heinous act. If convicted, he could get the death penalty.
Sheriffs in Indiana are seen investigating the crumpled wreck of the car, in which Vicky White killed herself
The couples’ abandoned Ford truck – their third getaway vehicle, after a police car, and an orange SUV – is seen abandoned inside a car wash in Indiana
Sheriffs are seen pulling Vicky White, 56, from the car after the ran the Cadillac off the road. Initially they called for negotiators after believing Casey had a gun
The pair were staying in room 150 on the ground level of the motel, where accommodation costs about $44 a night not including a $25 cash deposit required upon booking
The trial remains scheduled for June with White’s attorney saying his client wanted the trial to go ahead then against his advice.
Investigators believe the pair spent about six days holed up at a motel in Evansville after arriving on May 3, and discovered a variety of wigs as a way to disguise themselves.
Dave Wedding, sheriff of Vandenburgh County, said investigators do not believe the two had relatives or other contacts in the city of 120,000.
Authorities closed in on them after the manager of a car wash reported that a man closely resembling the 6-foot-9, 260-pound Casey White had been recorded by a surveillance camera getting out of a pickup truck.
Investigators said they located the pickup, then learned that the pair may have switched to a Cadillac, which was then spotted outside a motel nearby.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Motel 41 manager Paul Shaw said: ‘They stayed in a room not in their name. Somebody else rented the room and checked them in.
‘A local man with a local ID checked in and signed the stub. I never saw them – I wish I had – but they stayed in the room.
‘People come and go here, we don’t keep track.’
Rooms at the motel are all accessed independently by exterior doors, meaning guests do not need to walkthrough the small reception area except to use the vending machine or to check in.
Shaw, an electrical engineer by trade, said that he works the morning shift and never saw White or Vicky.
When the couple left the motel, police chased them down, with Casey telling investigators after his capture that ‘he was probably going to have a shootout at the stake of both of them losing their lives.’
The inmate appeared by video in May in an Indiana courtroom, where he waived extradition, before being sent back to Alabama.
Vicky, assistant director of corrections at the Lauderdale County jail, had put in for retirement ahead of the escape, and the day of the breakout, April 29, was her last day of work.
Sherry Sylvester had worked alongside White for 16 years, saying: ‘I know she did wrong and made a terrible mistake, but she’s still your friend.’
She said that White often tried to help prisoners, particularly ones without family, but she had never seen her do anything that crossed the line – claiming she was ‘by the book.’
Connie Moore, Casey White’s mother, said she last spoke with him by phone the day before the escape.
She said: ‘Everything was just as normal as it could be. I doubt he even knew he was leaving when she came in there to get him.’
A warrant was issued on May 2 for Vicky White charging her with permitting or facilitating escape.
Authorities said the plan appeared to have been in the works for some time.
She sold her house for about half its market value and bought an SUV that she stashed at a shopping center without license plates.
Asked where the bulk of the money had gone, Sheriff Wedding told DailyMail.com: ‘They spent it. They spent it on multiple vehicles, equipment, a gun, hotel, meals, clothes.
‘$60,000 can go pretty quick if you’re spending $6,000 a pop.’
Vicky used some of the cash and an alias to purchase the bronze 2007 Ford Edge in which they initially fled before abandoning it on a rural road in Tennessee about two hours north of the Florence, Alabama, jail from which White was sprung.
According to US Marshalls the couple then spent $6,000 on a Ford F-150 which was spotted parked at an odd angle at an Evansville carwash where White was also pictured on surveillance footage.
US Marshals Commander Chad Hunt said that the couple are believed to have purchased another vehicle.
Speaking earlier this year Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said she was the ‘mastermind’ of their logistical escape plan – but it’s unclear who came up with the idea to get Casey out.
He said: ‘To go from day one, thinking she’s been kidnapped and maybe in danger then finding out she took him out willingly, then trying to determine was she threatened or coerced in some way…then finding out that she was basically the mastermind behind the whole plan.
‘It’s been an emotional roller-coaster. Obviously, he was behind bars – he couldn’t have planned too much behind bars.
‘Personally, I think she was the one who put the plan together.
‘She was in a position of knowledge. She made sure the other armed deputies were out, she arranged to purchase the getaway car, she sold her house got her hands on cash, went shopping.
Casey White, 38, is seen in dashboard camera footage released by police in Indiana being taken into custody in May
Casey White, who faces a possible death sentence if convicted of a 2015 murder, had additional charges of fleeing added to his rap sheet as well as the murder charge
Vicky White was taken out of the car and laid on the grass beside the wreck
Singleton now believes that Casey and Vicky were in a ‘romantic relationship’ and that Vicky was ‘just as concerned about coming back and facing her family and her co-workers as she was the charges.’
Vicky was a widow and had no children, with Singleton saying of his employee before her deat: ‘I hope she survives this. She has some answers to give us.’
He continued: ‘You don’t know who you can trust.
‘I had every bit of trust in Vicky White. She has been an exemplary employee. What in the world prompted her to pull off something like this, I don’t know.
‘I don’t know if we’ll ever know.’
Vicky was set to be put in a different facility than the Lauderdale County jail where she worked for 17 years and helped Casey escape.
Singleton thanked investigators from the various national agencies that helped them capture the pair, along with the media for shedding light on the story.
He added: ‘Most escapes – from a county jail especially – they’re not planned. They’re just sort of spontaneous. There are no resources available, no plan in place.
‘This escape was obviously well planned and calculated. A lot of preparation went into this. They had plenty of resources, had cash,’ he said, referring to the money that Vicky had on her from the recent sale of her home.
‘They had everything they needed to pull this off. ,We were starting from ground zero, and not only that, we started – they got a six-hour head start on us.’
‘We got a dangerous man off the streets today. He’s never gonna see the light of day again. That’s a good thing.’
He promised to keep Casey White shackled day and night upon his return, according to NewsNation’s Brian Entin.