Casey White appears in court in cuffs and shackles as police release footage of the final moments
Casey White was in state prison on Tuesday night after being arraigned in Lauderdale County Courthouse, the day after his arrest, following 11 days on the run with corrections officer Vicky White.
Vicky White, 56, died on Monday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the coroner ruled on Tuesday. She pulled the trigger as the car she and Casey White – no relation – were traveling in crashed into a ditch in Indiana, having been run off the road by police.
DailyMail.com was there to witness the 38-year-old shuffle into court shortly before 10pm. White was heavily shackled on his ankles and with chains wreathed around his waist and wrists.
He spoke only to assure Judge Ben Graves that he had received proper counsel as he was charged with escape in the first degree.
That charge is now added to his laundry list of felonies, the most pressing of which is a capital murder charge for which he is due to stand trial in June.
Dressed in Vanderburgh County Correctional Facility yellow shirt and pants, a raw wound was clearly visible in the back of White’s shorn head as he sat at the front of the small courtroom.
It was the only evidence of any injury sustained by White in the car crash that dramatically ended his 11 day stretch on the lam with co-conspirator, former assistant director of corrections Vicky White, 56.
White was walked into the back of Lauderdale County Courthouse by sheriff deputies. He refused to answer questions shouted by waiting press.
He did not react when asked if he felt any remorse for Vicky’s death and did not flinch when asked: ‘Casey did you shoot Vicky White?’
Casey White is seen on Tuesday evening in court in Florence, Alabama
The 38-year-old did not react on Tuesday night when reporters shouted questions, asking him if he felt remorse for Vicky’s death
Casey White is seen on Tuesday night being led out of court after appearing before a judge
White was still on Tuesday wearing the yellow outfit from Vanderburgh County Correctional Facility in Indiana, where he spent Monday afternoon after his arrest
With his arms and legs in shackles, White walks out of the courtroom on Tuesday night
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, who is 6ft 9 tall, is seen towering over the guards in Alabama
Casey White, who faces a possible death sentence if convicted of a 2015 murder, had additional charges of fleeing added to his rap sheet on Tuesday
He showed no emotion during his court appearance in Alabama – the state he ran from on April 29
Casey White’s accomplice, Vicky White, is believed to have been planning the escape for some time – selling her house, submitting her retirement, and then telling colleagues she was feeling unwell and would go to the doctors that afternoon
White will be held in prison rather than jail, to prevent him trying to flee once again
The couple’s days as fugitives came to a tragic end in Evansville, Indiana, on Monday, with Vicky’s death from a gunshot wound moments after their car was rammed off the road and into a ditch.
Attorneys for White informed the court that they will be filing a motion for a change of venue for White’s forthcoming trial for the murder of 58-year-old Connie Ridgeway – allegedly stabbed to death by White.
White has confessed the crime, claiming he was paid to commit the heinous act.
The trial remains scheduled for June with White’s attorney saying his client wanted the trial to go ahead then against his advice.
His appearance came as new dashboard and body camera footage from Indiana showed the dramatic moment that Alabama fugitive Casey White was taken into custody and the body of his corrections officer accomplice dragged dying from their car on Monday.
She died in hospital on Monday night from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but spoke to 911 dispatchers before the crash.
As officers closed in on the couple’s vehicle, Vicky White could be heard saying: ‘Airbags are going off. Let’s get out and run.’
Then other officers arrive, and say she is still breathing.
‘We could hear her on the line saying she had her finger on the trigger,’ says a 911 dispatcher in audio released by Indiana authorities.
In the initial confusion, they believed that Casey White had shot himself, and then requested a negotiator. A second voice then says they do not need a negotiator.
Casey White is dragged out of the crumpled car first, by his hands. Officers kneel on him to handcuff him, then bring him away from the wreck towards another cruiser.
His denim shirt is ripped, but he appears otherwise unharmed, with his black sunglasses still on his face. He is checked over, then wrestled to the floor.
Officers then turn to Vicky White, who is described as ‘unresponsive’.
As police approach the car, one officer says: ‘We need to clear some of this s***’ to get to her.’
He asks if someone has a long stick.
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.’
After several minutes of discussion, the officer leans in to retrieve the gun from Vicky White’s hand. They then pull her from the car by her hands. She is then lain on the road.
Casey White, 38, is seen in dashboard camera footage released by police in Indiana being taken into custody on Monday
A third video released by the police showed them searching a Ford truck, which the couple abandoned before switching to their Cadillac.
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.’
He adds: ‘It’s weird.’
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, an Indiana sheriff said on Tuesday.
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.
No one realized that the two were missing until around 3.30pm.
The inmate and Vicky White appeared to have had a ‘jailhouse romance,’ Alabama authorities said last week. They were not related.
As for her role in the escape, the sheriff said: ‘He was not forcing her. It was a mutual relationship.’
Casey White can be seen looking over his shoulder, as Vicky White lay dying in the car
Casey White, in the white t-shirt, was serving a 75-year prison sentence for attempted murder and other offenses when he fled. He was also awaiting trial on charges of stabbing a woman to death during a 2015 burglary
Casey White, with his hands cuffed behind him, is marched towards the police cruiser – his crashed black car in the ditch behind him
The escaped prisoner, standing 6ft 9 tall, towers over the Indiana officers
Both Casey and Vicky White had multiple changes of clothes and wigs with them when they were caught
The wanted man is seen being wrestled to the ground by Indiana law enforcement on Monday afternoon
Casey White is just visible beneath the hood of the police car, as sheriffs wrestle him to the ground
Vandenburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding, right, refers to a photograph during a press conference in Evansville, Indiana on Tuesday
These are all of the weapons the couple had in their Cadillac when they were rammed into a ditch by police on Monday
The couple had just $29,000 of the $90,000 Vicky had withdrawn when they were caught on Monday
At the time of the breakout, Casey White was serving a 75-year prison sentence for attempted murder and other offenses and was awaiting trial on charges of stabbing a woman to death during a 2015 burglary.
Casey White is seen in his mugshot, taken on Monday after he was recaptured
If convicted, he could get the death penalty.
Investigators believe the pair spent about six days holed up at a motel in Evansville.
Authorities discovered wigs intended to hide their identities.
Dave Wedding, sheriff of Vandenburgh County, said investigators do not believe the two had relatives or other contacts in the city of 120,000.
‘They thought they’d driven long enough. They wanted to stop for a while, get their bearings straight and then figure out the next place to travel,’ the sheriff said.
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.
They arrived in Evansville on May 3 and received assistance by a local man whose identity remains unknown.
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.
Motel 41 manager Paul Shaw told DailyMail.com the runaway couple was staying in a room booked under a third party’s name
‘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.’
According to Shaw: ‘People come and go here, we don’t keep track.’
There were few cars in the motel parking lot when DailyMail.com visited the two-story facility on Tuesday.
Rooms are all accessed independently by exterior doors and guests need never walk through the small reception area except to use the vending machine or to check in – a process that White and Vicky avoided.
‘The police have all of the information and the ID. They have been here and spoken to everybody,’ Shaw said.
Shaw, an electrical engineer by trade, said that he works the morning shift and never saw White or Vicky who, police say, attempted to disguise herself with a variety of red and blonde wigs.
When the couple left the motel, police chased them down, authorities said.
The pair were caught Monday afternoon after leading US Marshals on a car chase that lasted ‘less than a few minutes’. They had been in Evansville, Indiana, since May 3
Sheriffs in Indiana are seen investigating the crumpled wreck of the car, in which Vicky White killed herself
A police officer is seen reaching inside the vehicle, to prize the gun from Vicky White’s hand
Sheriffs are seen pulling Vicky White, 56, from the car
Vicky White was taken out of the car and laid on the grass beside the wreck
The 56-year-old corrections officer was due to retire on the day she absconded with the suspected murderer
The two were found 219 miles away from the jail they left in Alabama on April 29. The manhunt spanned three different states
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
Casey White told investigators after his capture that ‘he was probably going to have a shootout at the stake of both of them losing their lives,’ the sheriff said.
The inmate appeared by video Tuesday in an Indiana courtroom, where he waived extradition, and authorities said he will be sent back to Alabama.
An attorney representing White in the murder case, Jamy Poss, declined to comment.
Vicky White, 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.
A woman who worked with her for 16 years could barely speak through tears on Tuesday.
‘I know she did wrong and made a terrible mistake, but she’s still your friend,’ said Sherry Sylvester, a longtime jail employee.
She said that White often tried to help prisoners, particularly ones without family.
But Sylvester said she never saw White do anything that crossed the line.
‘She did everything by the book,’ Sylvester said.
Connie Moore, Casey White’s mother, said she last spoke with him by phone the day before the escape.
She said her son may not have known what was about to happen.
‘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,’ Moore said.
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 at Tuesday’s press conference that the couple are believed to have purchased another vehicle.
On Tuesday morning, 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.
‘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,’ Singleton said.
‘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.
‘She obviously put the plan together,’ he told CNN.
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.
Before she died, Singleton said of his employee: ‘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.’
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
An Evansville police officer checked the abandoned Ford truck, and its discovery ultimately led to the couple
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.
Casey will be sent back to state prison.
On Monday afternoon, Singleton thanked investigators from the various national agencies that helped them capture the pair, along with the media for shedding light on the story.
‘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,’ he said during a press conference on Monday evening.
‘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.’
Singleton added: ‘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.
‘I’ll probably hear from a civil rights attorney but I don’t care,’ Singleton said.
