Why Casey White was in Vicky White’s Alabama county jail to begin with, explained

Alabama Judge Ben Graves allowed Casey Cole White’s transfer from state prison to the Lauderdale County Detention Center in Florence after a dispute between his defense attorneys and the warden about restrictions placed on a visit with their client, court records obtained by Fox News Digital show.

White, a hulking 38-year-old felon with empty eyes and prison gang tattoos, was already serving a 75-year prison sentence at the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility 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 White, 58, who was beaten and stabbed to death in her apartment in what White allegedly claimed was a murder-for-hire.

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His attorneys in October 2021 asked authorities at Donaldson for an exemption to a rule barring them from bringing in laptops during inmate visitation. They said they needed to bring in laptops in order to go over discovery materials in the Ridgeway case to prepare for trial, which the judge scheduled for June, the records show.

Casey White’s attorney, Jamy Poss, asked for the exemption in writing in a letter to the warden. When he received no response, his assistant circled back.

“The answer is, No,” replied a Department of Corrections official. “Request denied.”

The Alabama Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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After the denial, Casey White’s lawyers asked the judge to send him to the Lauderdale County Detention Center, just down the road from the courthouse, near Poss’s office and where they would be allowed to go over materials with their client, the records show.

That’s also where Vicky White, who had been carrying on discreet communications with Casey White since his initial stay at the facility in 2020, worked as the assistant director of corrections.

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The judge granted the defense team’s request in February, and ordered Casey White to be sent to Lauderdale County by March 1.

Inmates there 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 week. “That relationship has now been confirmed through our investigation by independent sources and means.”

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On April 29, jail surveillance cameras show Vicky and Casey White walking out to a waiting patrol car in the sally port around 9:30 a.m. Deputies later found the car abandoned outside an Academy sporting goods store nearby, where she’d allegedly planted one of three getaway cars the couple used in an 11-day manhunt.

“They had a six-hour head start, and we had nothing,” Singleton said in a note to reporters Wednesday. “Our first major lead came in Sunday night and by then they had been gone almost three days.”

The first tip led investigators to Tennessee, where the couple ditched a recently purchased Ford Edge SUV and picked up an F-150, which police found in Indiana, according to the sheriff.

From there, they showed up on surveillance video at a carwash, and Singleton’s counterpart in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, Sheriff Dave Wedding, said authorities found them at a seedy motel that the couple had hired a homeless man to book for them.

“We believe, because [Casey White] told us, that they found the guy on the street and said, ‘Hey, I’ll pay you if you book a room at the hotel up here,’” he told Fox News Digital. “So he went in and booked the room, and they gave him some money.”

The U.S. Marshals and local law enforcement staked the place out, spotted the couple, and engaged in a car chase, Wedding said.

A task force cruiser slammed into the pair’s fleeing vehicle on a patch of uneven grass, knocking it into a ditch and rolling it onto its side.

Rather than face arrest, Vicky White 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.

A subsequent search warrant served at the motel room found nothing of evidentiary value, Wedding said. The couple had packed up everything relevant before they left.

Casey White’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

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He tried unsuccessfully at his client’s Tuesday arraignment on a first-degree escape charge to have the murder trial delayed.

Casey White could face the death penalty if convicted of killing Ridgeway. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The trial begins next month.

Fox News’ Austin Westfall contributed to this report.