Alabama prisoner and jailer were prepared for a shooting: bailiff

The murder suspect and his jailer, who evaded authorities for more than a week after leaving an Alabama jail cell, 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.

Escaped convict Casey White showed no remorse in the death of jail officer Vicky White, who was found fatally wounded with a gun in her hand, Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding said. Authorities don’t believe Casey White shot Vicky White, but a coroner will make the final determination, he said.

The multi-state search for the inmate and the woman who helped him escape ended Monday with Vicky White, 56, shot dead in the head with a gun drawn. Casey White, 38, gave up without a fight and said he did not kill the woman he called his wife.

The end of the chase did little to answer the lingering questions surrounding the escape: Why would a respected prison officer on the eve of her retirement give her all to help a dangerous criminal escape? What did they do while evading the authorities for approximately eleven days? And when they were finally surrounded, did he really pull the trigger to end his own life?

An attorney representing Casey White in her capital murder case, Jamy Poss, declined to comment Tuesday on the arrest, saying he was still trying to figure out what had happened in Indiana.

Casey White appeared in court via video and “will be extradited immediately. They will most likely move him as quickly as possible,” Jess Powers, director of the Vanderburgh County CyberCrime Task Force, told The Associated Press.

NBC’s “Today” show reported Tuesday that federal marshals said Casey White told officers at the scene, “Please help my wife. She shot herself in the head and I didn’t do it.” The two Whites were not related, let alone married, authorities said.

Before Vanderburgh County Coroner Steve Lockyear announced his death, the Alabama sheriff had said he hoped to get answers from his once trusted jail employee.

“I had all my trust in Vicky White. She has been an exemplary employee. What the hell provoked her, prompted her to do a trick like this? I don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll ever know,” Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said.

Authorities moved in after receiving a tip Sunday that a man who closely resembled Casey White had been caught on surveillance camera at a car wash getting out of a 2006 Ford F-150 pickup, the U.S. Marshals Service said. . White is 6 feet, 9 inches (2.06 meters) tall and weighs about 260 pounds (118 kilograms).

After locating the F-150, authorities obtained information that the two may have gotten into a beige 2006 Cadillac, U.S. Marshal Marty Keely told “Good Morning America.”

“We send our people to the car wash area and look at the vehicle at a hotel,” Keely said.

Members of a US Marshals task force went to investigate, which led to a brief chase, Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding said on “Today.”

“The chase was very short. It was going up a major artery here in Vanderburgh County and across a parking lot at a large factory. They were in a grassy area, so three members of our task force rammed the vehicle and pushed it into a ditch so it landed on its side. As they approached the vehicle, it was obvious the female driver was unconscious and still had a gun in her hand. And they pulled the killer out of the vehicle simultaneously,” Wedding said.

Wedding said it has not been officially determined that Vicky White took her own life.

“The coroner’s office will do an investigation and determine if it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The initial indication is that it was, but we won’t rule anything out until the coroner conducts a thorough investigation.”

Casey White will return to Lauderdale County, Alabama, where he will be prosecuted, Keely said.

The manhunt began on April 29 after Vicky White, deputy director of corrections at the Lauderdale County Jail, told her co-workers that she was taking Casey White, who was awaiting trial in a capital murder case, into custody. from jail for a mental health evaluation. There was no such appointment.

“Today we took a dangerous man off the street. He will never see the light of day again. That’s a good thing, not just for our community. That’s a good thing for our country,” Singleton said.

Casey White was serving a 75-year prison sentence for attempted murder and other charges at the time of his escape. He was awaiting trial for the stabbing of a 58-year-old woman during a robbery in 2015. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Federal and local law enforcement officials also learned that Casey White threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend and her sister in 2015 and said he “wanted the police to kill him,” the Marshals Service said.

A warrant was issued against Vicky Sue White on May 2 charging her with allowing or facilitating first degree elopement.

Family members and co-workers of Vicky White said they were stunned. Singleton said it seemed like the plan had been in the works for some time. Inmates said the two had a special relationship and that she gave Casey White better treatment than other inmates.

In recent months, he purchased a rifle and shotgun and was also known to have a pistol, Keely said. He also sold his house, for about half the market value, and bought an orange 2007 Ford Edge that he hid in a mall with no license plates.

“This escape was obviously well planned and calculated. A lot of preparation went into this. They had a lot of resources, cash, vehicles,” Singleton said.

On what Vicky White said would be her last day on the job, video showed the couple going from jail to the mall, where they picked up the Ford and left, Singleton said. His flight was not discovered for much of the day.

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