Son of escaped Alabama murder suspect's alleged victim calls out justice system's 'failures'
Austin Williams, whose mother Connie Ridgeway was murdered in 2015 during a home invasion, speaks out.
Casey Cole White, facing a pending capital murder trial in Alabama and already serving a 75-year sentence on attempted murder and kidnappings charges, escaped custody on April 29, sparking a nationwide manhunt.
The Lauderdale County Detention Center’s assistant director of corrections, Vicky White, allegedly helped the convicted felon and murder suspect walk out of the county jail Friday in broad daylight, according to the local sheriff.
Casey White, 38, stands at an imposing 6 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs somewhere between 260 and 330 pounds, according to authorities and prison records.
Casey Cole White, the imposing murder suspect who escaped from an Alabama jail Friday morning with the alleged help of a prison official, warned cops in 2015 that he’d kill his ex-girlfriend if he got the chance, according to court documents. (Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office, Alabama Department of Corrections)
He was a football player at West Limestone High School, according to former classmates, and grew up in rural Lester, Alabama.
Neighbors who knew him said he was quiet and often polite – but had "no moral checkpoint."
Court records show he pleaded guilty to a 2010 domestic assault for attacking a male relative with an ax handle and received a sentence of six years in state prison.
Then in 2015, in a jealous rage over an ex-girlfriend, he rushed into her house armed with two handguns, according to court documents.
Vicky White, 56, the assistant director of corrections at the facility, bought a 2007 copper Ford Edge SUV before the escape, the sheriff’s office announced Wednesday. The plate number was not available. (Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office)
Suspecting she was sleeping with one of the residents, he broke into the back bedroom and found her two roommates holding hands with one another and realized they were not involved with his ex, according to police documents.
He ordered the roommates onto the floor at gunpoint, then turned his anger toward the ex-girlfriend.
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"The victim was able to dash past him and out the back door," according to a warrant related to the December 2015 home invasion.
He told investigators he shot at her as she ran but missed. He continued firing and fled out the front door, shooting the roommates’ dog in the process.
Vicky White, inset, is a corrections officer wanted in connection with Casey White's escape after allegedly driving away from the jail with him on April 29. (Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office)
The ex escaped through the back door and the roommates climbed out the bathroom window and ran to a neighbor’s house.
Responding officers found bullet holes in the walls, the dog dead in the hallway and two children sheltering in the basement.
But White took off in a stolen car and led cops on a chase across state lines to Giles County, Tennessee, before police eventually cornered him.
The U.S. Marshals are offering $10,000 for information leading to the capture of an Alabama inmate who escaped from jail as well as the location of an endangered correctional officer. (U.S. Marshals Service)
"He stated that he wanted to kill her and have the police kill him," the warrant concludes. "His only regret was that neither was successful. He stated that if he was released he would kill the victim."
The sheriff’s office said Wednesday that he had also threatened to kill his ex’s sister. Local and federal law enforcement said they two potential targets had been warned of his escape and were placed under protection.
"The area he’s from, West Limestone, is very backwoods, lots of wooded areas, not very populated," a former acquaintance told Fox News Digital, asking for anonymity due to safety concerns. "He knows that area very well. I don’t believe they ran to the beach. Not without him doing what he said he would do first."
Vicky White had been expected to retire Friday before the escape. She’d hold her house in mid-April and told colleagues for months she planned to relocate to the beach.
But rural West Limestone, 30 miles from the nearest town, and dotted with a mix of forests, farmland, hills and hollows, could be an ideal place for a fugitive to hide out, according to area residents as well as former investigators.
"The Marshals are going to figure that out," said David Katz, a former DEA special agent who took part in the 1990 manhunt for the mobster Constabile "Gus" Farace. "They’re going to speak to anyone who knew him growing up, people who went hunting with him, and figure out what area, what part of the country, he’s most at home with."
A jury convicted him of seven felonies in connection with the mayhem, including attempted murder and multiple counts of kidnapping. Records show a prior conviction for domestic violence.
Two months before the crime spree, Connie Ridgeway, 58, was beaten and stabbed to death in her home in nearby Rogersville.
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While serving a 75-year sentence in the crime spree case, White told authorities he was responsible for the crime in a murder for hire plot in 2015, then pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Austin Williams, Ridgeway’s son, said he had trouble believing the murder for hire theory but noted that his mother was expected to testify in a fraud case involving another woman before the attack.
"His romantic relationships probably don’t last long," he told Fox News Digital, sharing a warning to Vicky White: "Get away from him and give him up as soon as possible."
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