By William Thornton
al.com
FLORENCE, Ala. — A Lauderdale County circuit judge has set trial dates next year for Casey White in a 2015 capital murder case and in the death of the jailer who helped him escape to Indiana earlier this year.
On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Benjamin Graves ordered that White, 39, will stand trial for the felony murder of Vicky White on April 17, 2023, and the capital murder of Connie Ridgeway two months later, on June 17.
White is charged with capital murder, accused of killing Ridgeway at her home in Rogersville on Oct. 23, 2015. Prosecutors say White confessed five years later and claimed that someone paid him to kill Ridgeway.
White’s case got national attention earlier this year after he escaped from the Lauderdale County jail with Vicky White (no relation), who was the assistant director of corrections. Authorities say that Casey and Vicky White had a jailhouse romance, communicating for months from behind bars.
[Watch the ‘Prisoner of Love’ movie on Tubi]
Casey White is also charged with felony murder in Vicky White’s death. He has pleaded not guilty, and if convicted of felony murder faces up to life in prison.
Vicky White shot and killed herself as police in Indiana closed in to arrest the pair after an 11-day manhunt in May. Casey White was charged with felony murder, prosecutors said, because Vicky White died while he was committing a felony.
©2022 Advance Local Media LLC.
Visit al.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.