Corrections officer Vicki White now wanted for helping murder suspect escape prison: sheriff
An Alabama corrections officer who vanished from prison with an inmate is wanted for helping the murder suspect escape, authorities said Monday.
Vicki White, assistant director of corrections for Lauderdale County, is accused of permitting or facilitating escape in the first degree, Sheriff Rick Singleton said at a press conference. A warrant was issued for her arrest Monday.
“We know she participated, whether she did that willingly or if she was coerced, threatened somehow to participate in the case, not really sure. We know for sure she did participate,” Singleton said.
White was last seen Friday when she said she was taking Casey Cole White, who was being held on murder charges, for a mental-health evaluation at the county courthouse.
The sheriff said the patrol vehicle the two were in was found at a nearby shopping center parking lot.
He said the pair — who share the same last name but are not related — made no attempt to go to the courthouse.
Singleton added that Vicki White’s job was to coordinate transports, so when she told other officers she had to transport the inmate from jail she was not questioned by anyone.
The US Marshals Service has offered a $10,000 reward for information that leads to Casey Cole White’s capture.
“We consider both of them dangerous and in all probability both of them are armed,” US Marshal Marty Keely said at the press conference.
The inmate was charged with two counts of capital murder in September 2020 in the stabbing death of Connie Ridgeway, 58, the agency said.
He had been serving a 75-year sentence for a 2015 crime spree, including holding six people at gunpoint — and shooting one of them and a dog, WBRC reported.
Vicki White told colleagues she was bringing the inmate to a mental health evaluation — but there was no such appointment on the court’s schedule, Singleton said Friday.
She had also claimed that after dropping the prisoner off, she was going to seek medical attention because she didn’t feel well, Singleton said.
She was alone when she transported the accused murderer, “a strict violation of policy,” he said at a press conference.
