ATHENS, Ala. — The mother of escaped Alabama inmate Casey White defended her son an interview with The Post — saying the accused murderer is innocent and “not a monster.”
“I just have no idea why they’ve painted him as a monster,” Connie White said over the phone of her son, who escaped from Lauderdale County Jail Friday morning with the help of a rogue female corrections official, according to police.
Connie said she spoke to her son the day before his vanishing act and “everything was perfectly fine.”
Casey, 38, was led out of jail by Lauderdale County Assistant Director of Corrections Vicky White, 56, according to police, who released video of the getaway Tuesday.
Officials have said Casey and Vicky, who are not related, had a “special relationship,” though the inmate’s mother said she was unaware of the bond.
“He never mentioned Vicky White,” Connie said. “He said he had a pen pal but I had no idea who it was.”
Vicky, who was tasked with transporting prisoners, had said she was taking Casey to a mental health evaluation at the courthouse, police said. The appointment was fabricated, and the duo ditched her police cruiser in the parking lot of a local shopping plaza and had not been seen since, according to authorities.
Casey was serving a 75-year sentence for attempted murder, burglary, robbery, kidnapping and animal cruelty. He was facing murder charges after confessing to the stabbing death of Connie Ridgeway, 58.
His mother claimed he copped to that crime to get a change of scenery at the rural county jail.
“The only reason he came out to Lauderdale County was to get out of the prison he was in,” she said.
“He wrote a letter to say that he murdered that woman. But he didn’t really murder her, he just done that to get back up here.
“He just wanted to be out of that prison because it was so bad and there was no food.”
Casey and Vicky are suspected of being armed and dangerous, according to investigators. An ex-girlfriend of the escaped inmate who once testified he tried to kill her told a local outlet she was scared he would try to find her.
“They’ve [local police] promised to step up patrols, but we are freaking out. We don’t know if he is going to show up and take us out like he tried to do before,” the unidentified woman told WAAY 13 from an out-of-state hideout.
Despite dire warnings from officials and fear from previous victims, Connie stood by her son when asked if he was dangerous.
“I don’t think so. He’s not a monster, I’ll put it that way,” she said before abruptly ending the call.
“He is not the monster they are making him out to be, at all.”
Up to $15,000 in reward money was being offered for information leading to the suspect’s capture.
