The violent Alabama felon who led authorities on a massive manhunt last year after he was sprung from lockup by a jail employee who was his alleged lover and who would later kill herself to avoid capture, has been sentenced to life in prison.
On Thursday, 39-year-old Casey Cole White spoke in a Lauderdale County courtroom after he pleaded guilty to escape in exchange for a felony charge that involved the death of Vicky White, the 56-year-old correctional officer, and his alleged girlfriend being dropped.
White, who agreed to a life sentence without the possibility of parole told the court, “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,” according to local CBS affiliate 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,” White said.
(Video: YouTube/WHNT)
“I apologize to her family because she said that’s the only thing she regretted … leaving her family,” he added before returning to his seat.
In April 2022, White absconded from the Lauderdale County Detention Center in Florence, going missing after being taken for a mental health evaluation. Aided by Vicky White with whom he allegedly had a jailhouse romance, the pair led state and federal officials on an 11-day manhunt that made national headlines and ended tragically when she shot herself in the head after authorities caught up with them in Evansville, Indiana.
(Video: YouTube: Evansville Courier & Press)
Prior to White’s words, Chris Connolly, the Lauderdale County District Attorney said, “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. Vicky’s mother wanted to speak – but is too emotional.”
“There comes a time in your career where you don’t know how to address an issue,” defense attorney Mark McDaniel told the court. “I’ve never seen a case like this.”
“Mr. White, I hope you pray for grace,” McDaniel said to his client. “Amazing grace.”
“It’s not my place to give you grace. But I hope that for you. You are not the most hated man in America, but you have taken legal responsibility for this crime,” said Lauderdale County Circuit Judge Benjamin Graves who handed down White’s sentence.
“Like I said in the courtroom there, it’s not all on Casey. It’s a two-way street folks. She had the keys to the jail. She’s a great, sweet, kind woman,” McDaniel said in a statement to WHNT after the hearing.
“But like I said before the judge, he didn’t have the keys, he was in a cage. She had the keys. Some people may say that she had the keys to his freedom and he had the keys to her heart,” he said. “Maybe they would, maybe that’s it, I don’t know.”
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