Long before he gained international attention for escaping from an Alabama jail with a corrections officer, Casey Cole White spent a wild night on the run from the law that ended when he opted to accept a can of soda instead of shooting himself.
The wild story is told in the new Netflix documentary, “Jailbreak: Love on the Run” which recounts the story of the inmate and Vicky White, the Lauderdale County jailer who sprang him from the jail in April of 2022. The two made it as far as Evansville, Ind., where Casey White was retaken 11 days later and Vicky shot herself following a high-speed pursuit.
At the time the two met in 2020, White had just been transferred to Lauderdale County Jail to stand trial for capital murder. He was already serving a 75-year sentence for a wild night, recounted by former Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely.
According to Blakely, Casey White had been a frequent presence in his county jail, beginning in his late teens. He was locked up 11 times in 10 years, he said.
Among his various charges were reckless endangerment, speeding, reckless driving, domestic violence, criminal mischief, harassment, public intoxication, and various traffic offenses.
But his 75-year sentence came following a one-night crime spree through north Alabama and south Tennessee that included a home invasion, two carjackings and multiple shootings that left a dog dead and a woman injured.
“Oh my God, I’ll never forget that night,” Blakely said.
White, who was 32 at the time, went to his ex-girlfriend’s house on the evening of Dec. 1, 2015.
The woman fled to a neighbor’s house, but White went into her home and aimed his guns at two men inside. The men jumped through a window and ran next door, but a 911 caller told police two children were still in the house.
White fired multiple gunshots in the house, killing a dog. The two children, who were not injured, were rescued by responding deputies after White fled on foot.
A little over an hour later, police got a second 911 call from a man saying White had gone to his house demanding money. The victim said he had no money.
“Casey sticks a gun in his face, tells him he needs his car keys,” Blakely said, “which he politely provided to Casey.”
White resurfaced about 30 minutes later at the Tennessee welcome center along Interstate 65 in Giles County, where he first tried to carjack the male driver of an 18-wheeler, then approached a woman sitting in her vehicle. When she refused to open the car door for him, White shot into her vehicle multiple times.
The woman, who was struck several times, was later taken to Vanderbilt University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
After failing to steal the woman’s car, White fled. As deputies were responding to the shooting, they received word that a man had been robbed at gunpoint of his white Lincoln MKZ at the Pilot Travel Center at Exit 22.
Blakely said as White tried to drive off with the man’s car, the victim shouted, “Hey man, leave me my cell phone.” White stopped, backed up, handed the man his cell phone, and drove off, Blakely said.
Deputies next spotted White in the stolen Lincoln as he re-entered Limestone County. White fled south on U.S. 31, reaching speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.
A standoff ensued after White got the car stuck in a field near Huntsville-Brownsferry Road, but Blakely was eventually able to talk him into surrendering.
In dashcam footage from the incident, White can be heard saying to a deputy, “I want the sheriff.”
As Blakely recounted, he arrived at the scene to find White with two guns pointed to either side of his head.
“I’m like, ‘Casey, put them dang guns down, and he’s like, ‘Mike, call Momma, tell her I love her.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh Casey, nobody’s going to die here tonight,” Blakely said.
On the dashcam video, White can be heard asking, “Can someone go get me a Sun Drop?”
“You want a Sun Drop?” Blakely asks.
The former sheriff said, “So I gave it to him. He put the guns down.”
White was eventually charged with two counts of first degree murder, first degree burglary, first degree robbery, first degree theft, attempted carjacking, carjacking and theft.
Once Alabama’s longest serving sheriff, Blakely, 73, was removed from office in 2021 immediately after a Limestone County jury found him guilty of stealing from his campaign account and abusing his power to get interest-free loans from a safe that held cash belonging to county jail inmates.
He was released earlier this year after serving one year of a three-year sentence.
