LIMESTONE COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — Former Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely says Casey White, who escaped the Lauderdale County Detention Center, has a history of violence. Blakely said he deescalated a standoff involving White in 2015.

Blakely sat down with News 19 Investigative Reporter Dallas Parker Monday afternoon.

The former sheriff says he’s known White since he was a little boy. But White was a man on the run from law enforcement in two states when Blakely encountered him in December 2015.

Blakely said White broke into his ex-girlfriend’s house, shot at two of her friends, and shot and killed her dog in early December 2015. That’s when, Blakely said, White went on a hunt for a car, attempting two carjackings and successfully stealing the third car.

Following a late-night chase, Limestone County deputies cornered White. That’s when the man began pleading for the sheriff to intervene.

“I got there just a few minutes afterward,” Blakely said. “Everybody was there with AR-15s and Casey is standing out in the middle of the roadway with two Glock 40 caliber pistols, one stuck to each side of his head talking about killing himself.”

Blakely said White wanted him to call his mother and tell her he loved her.

“I kept trying to talk Casey into surrendering, telling him nothing was going to happen,” the former sheriff said. “He said ‘oh yeah, I’m gonna make y’all kill me.’ I put him in my truck and brought him back up to the jail where he stayed for a couple of years before actually getting sentenced and being sent to the penitentiary.”

White received a 75-year state prison term for the events described by Blakely.

The former sheriff said once White was transferred to the Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, he began receiving letters from him.

“He wrote me several times, telling me that he could solve a murder for Lauderdale county and that he knew where we could find a body in Limestone County.”

In further correspondence, Blakely tells News 19 that White was desperate for a transfer.

“It’s my understanding, according to Casey, he had been shanked a couple of times while there in prison,” Blakely said. “He didn’t like it down there and wanted to get back in a county jail.”

Blakely said White outlined where his investigators could find a woman’s body in Limestone County, but nothing ever came out of the search.

But White would confess to the 2015 murder of Connie Ridgeway. He was charged with her murder in 2020. White later pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease to those charges. Prosecutors said White claimed he was paid to kill the Rogersville woman.

White was set to go to trial in April 2022, leading to his return to the Lauderdale County Detention Center for pre-trial motions. But his trial was continued to June.

Now White is on the run with the jail’s assistant director of corrections, Vicky White.

“They’re probably trying to put as much distance between themselves and this area as they possibly can,” Blakely said.

The former sheriff issued a warning to the public.

“I would suggest anyone that comes in contact with him, just be extremely cautious. Not only that, any officer that comes in contact with him.”

And an invitation to Casey White.

“Call me and come see me, and we’ll see if we can’t get this mess straightened out.”