Sheriff: Inmate, jailer were ready for shootout

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A murder suspect and the jailer who helped him escape from an Alabama lockup 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 Tuesday.

Authorities caught up with the pair Monday, more than a week after the breakout and nearly 300 miles away, and rammed their car into a ditch after a brief chase. Escaped inmate Casey White, 38, surrendered, while jail official Vicky White, 56, was found with a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at a hospital, officials said.

Authorities believe she shot herself, but a coroner will make the determination, Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding said.

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, Ala., jail for what she falsely claimed was a mental health evaluation.

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.” At the time of the breakout, Casey White was serving a 75year prison sentence for attempted murder and other offenses and was awaiting trial on charges of stabbing a woman to death during a 2015 burglary. 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. Wedding 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.

Investigators said they located the pickup, then learned the pair may have switched to a Cadillac, which was then spotted outside a motel nearby. When the couple left the motel, police chased them down, authorities said.

Casey White appeared by video Tuesday in an Indiana courtroom, where he waived extradition, and authorities said he will be sent back to Alabama.