(NewsNation) — Casey White, the inmate who escaped from an Alabama jail with help from his corrections officer lover in April 2022, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday.
White, 39, was charged with escape in the first degree following his capture in May 2022.
He pleaded guilty last month to first-degree escape in exchange for not being prosecuted for murder in the case of Vicky White, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the two were apprehended in Indiana following an 11-day manhunt, according to the Lauderdale County District Attorney’s Office.
Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly told NewsNation affiliate WHNT that White approached him after the hearing to present the plea deal. Connolly said White agreed to the maximum sentence for first-degree escape, which is life in prison.
Speaking to the court Thursday, Casey White said he and Vicky fell in love, and the only thing she regretted was hurting her family.
“I feel like the most hated man in the world. I loved Vicky and I wouldn’t drag her name through the mud for anyone in this courtroom,” Casey White said, according to WHNT. “Vicky took me out because she said, ‘Right was right. Wrong is wrong.’ First person to show me affection. First person to give me a hug in six years.”
Those who knew Vicky White still find it hard to reconcile the woman they knew with her actions. Members of her family were present at the sentencing.
“If you told me Vicky would do that, I’d bet my legs being cut off she wouldn’t,” one sheriff’s deputy said before the sentencing.
NewsNation reported Wednesday that White claimed he killed a woman while the two were on the run.
The “confession,” which authorities dispute, was offered up by White during a phone call from jail in December to NewsNation senior national correspondent Brian Entin.
He reiterated the claim several times. Casey White said he killed the woman while he and corrections officer Vicky White hid at a motel in the area.
Local authorities believe White is lying. A detective with the Evansville Police Department pointed out White has made false confessions before and said there were no missing women reported in the area.
At the time of his escape in April 2022, White was being held at the Lauderdale County Detention Center for allegedly stabbing a woman named Connie Ridgeway to death in 2015. He confessed to that killing but later recanted.
That trial is set to begin in August.