Recaptured Alabama fugitive Casey White intended to have a shootout with law enforcement, and would have done so had pursuing officers not forced him to wreck in a ditch Monday in Evansville, Indiana, a sheriff said Tuesday.
The crash ended White’s 11-day run on the lam with former corrections officer Vicky White, the woman accused of springing him from an Alabama county jail April 29 — and who authorities preliminarily believe fatally shot herself after the wreck.
Officers who’d been tipped the pair were in Evansville gave chase after seeing them leave a motel in a Cadillac Monday, and had the pursuers not forced them into a ditch, “the fugitive was going to engage in a shootout with law enforcement,” Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding told reporters Tuesday, citing White’s interviews with investigators after his capture.
“That action may have saved many of my deputies’ (and other officers’) lives,” Wedding said.
“(Casey White) said he was probably going to have a shootout, at the stake of both of them losing their lives,” Wedding said.
Plenty of questions remain about the actions of the pair, who authorities said may have fostered a clandestine, romantic relationship when the man normally housed in state prison intermittently stayed at a county jail while awaiting trial in a pending murder case. Their travels — which authorities say involved at least four vehicles from Alabama to Indiana — sparked a multistate manhunt.
But they appeared equipped for more hiding: In the Cadillac, police found about $29,000 in cash, wigs, four handguns and an AR-15 rifle, Wedding said Tuesday. Police previously said Vicky White probably was using cash from a recent home sale.
The pair ended up being in Evansville for a week, but had paid for a 14-day stay at the motel, Wedding said.
“They thought … they’d driven long enough that they wanted to stop for a while, get their bearings straight, and then figure out their next place for travel,” Wedding said.
A third person may have helped the couple book the motel room, according to a preliminary investigation. Casey White and Vicky White tried to get a room initially, but could not because she did not have identification, Wedding said. The room had been paid for for 14 days, he said, and when the two left, it looked like it had been “cleaned out,” he said.
The manager of the motel told CNN he never saw the fugitives and didn’t know they were staying there. It’s possible they were visiting someone staying at the motel or someone else checked into a room for them, he said.
In Indiana’s Vanderburgh County jail Tuesday, Casey White waived his right to an extradition hearing.
“I want to go back to Alabama,” Casey White, wearing a yellow jumpsuit and orange slides, said while appearing virtually before a judge.
He is scheduled to arrive in Lauderdale County Tuesday evening and will be taken to the courthouse for arraignment. He then will be transferred to state Department of Corrections custody in Jefferson County instead of county custody, said Rick Singleton, sheriff of Alabama’s Lauderdale County and Vicky White’s former boss.
Casey White has been speaking freely with investigators after his capture, Wedding said Tuesday.
“He was pretty candid with the investigators last night. They had a fairly lengthy interview,” Wedding said.
