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Warrant issued for Alabama corrections officer charged with helping inmate escape

A sheriff in Alabama announced Monday that a warrant has been issued for a corrections officer who authorities now believe helped a capital murder suspect escape.

Casey Cole White, who was at the Lauderdale County Jail awaiting trial for two counts of capital murder, vanished Friday after Vicky White, an assistant director of corrections who is not related to the inmate, said she was transporting him from the jail to a courthouse for a planned mental health evaluation.

According to investigators, the evaluation was never scheduled, nor was the medical appointment she said she had scheduled for herself after dropping him off.

Casey Cole White and Assistant Director of Corrections Vicky White.
Casey Cole White and Vicky White. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: U.S. Marshals Service via AP; Lauderdale County Sherrif's Office via AP)

At a press conference in Florence, Ala., Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said an active warrant has been issued for Vicky White on charges of permitting or facilitating escape in the first degree.

“We know she participated; whether she did that willingly or if she was coerced, threatened somehow to participate in the case, not really sure," Singleton said. "We know for sure she did participate.”

Singleton said investigators are looking into whether the inmate, 38, and the corrections officer, 56, were romantically involved.

Vicky White, a widow with no children, has been with the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office for 17 years and was named "employee of the year" four times.

“This is not the Vicky White we know, by any stretch of the imagination,” Singleton said.

He said that the day before she went missing, she submitted her retirement papers. Investigators later found her patrol car abandoned at a nearby shopping center.

Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton speaks during a news conference in Florence, Ala.
Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton at a news conference in Florence, Ala., on Monday. (WAAY TV via Yahoo News video)

Casey White, who had been serving a 75-year sentence for a 2015 home invasion and carjacking conviction, was charged in 2020 with two counts of capital murder after confessing to the 2015 stabbing death of 58-year-old Connie Ridgeway. He later pleaded not guilty.

Singleton said that Vicky White was alone when she left the jail with the 6-foot-9, 260-pound Casey White on Friday morning, a violation of a department policy that at least two sworn deputies should take part in transporting a person under those charges.

Authorities believe Casey White could now be armed with Vicky White's 9 mm handgun and should be considered dangerous.

The U.S. Marshals Service is offering up to $10,000 for information leading to his capture.