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The man accused of fatally shooting Sgt. Greg Martin during a 1996 traffic stop on Interstate 77 has been transferred from Yadkin County, site of the crime, to Ashe County after his extradition from Florida late last week.

However, the move involving Scott Vincent Sica, 36, of Cape Coral, Fla., was not due to security or similar reasons, but space.

“Our jail is full,” a spokesperson for the Yadkin County Sheriff’s Office said Monday regarding the holding of Sica at the Ashe County facility.

Sica was brought to North Carolina early Friday after signing a waiver of extradition on Wednesday which permitted him to be released into the custody of Yadkin County officers.

He is accused of shooting Martin, a member of the Jonesville Police Department, in Yadkin County just south of Jonesville on Oct. 5, 1996. Martin, 30 at the time, previously served with the Mount Airy Police Department and relatives of the slain officer still live in Surry County.

“Never Killed Anyone”

Sica, who was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder on Oct. 3 — just shy of the 16th anniversary of the murder — had plenty to say before leaving Florida, speaking through his attorney there.

Stuart Pepper, a personal injury lawyer in Cape Coral, said Sica told him he was shocked by his arrest and had never heard of Martin’s murder until being arrested in connection with the crime earlier this month, according to a report by WTSP, a Florida television station.

Pepper added that his client had not been advised of the evidence authorities have against him in the case.

Sica’s arrest on Oct. 3 resulted from a cooperative effort by North Carolina and Florida authorities. The day before he was taken into custody, investigators brought him in to take hair samples and fingerprints, according to the TV station. It reported that he was linked to the officer’s death by both physical evidence and information.

A $130,000 reward was offered for tips leading to an arrest in the cold case.

Sica had been convicted of robbing two banks and a Home Depot store in the same general time frame as Martin’s murder, but denied any involvement in the shooting to his attorney, the TV report continued.

“He said, ‘I’ll do time for something I did, but I won’t do time for something I didn’t do,’” Pepper told the TV station, quoting his client.

“He told me he’s never killed anyone in his life,” the lawyer further said. “He’s a nice little man. He reminds me of a leprechaun.”

Sica is said to have lived with his parents in Cape Coral, a city of 154,000 residents on the Gulf coast of Florida. He helped with his father’s electrical business and occasionally chartered cruises for a living, according to Florida media reports.

The accused, who did not fight extradition to North Carolina, was released from custody early Friday at the Lee County Jail in Florida. Sica had a first-appearance court hearing that afternoon in Yadkin County, where he was served with an arrest warrant and processed.

Sica later was taken to Ashe County.

Yadkin County has a contract with Ashe to house its prisoners when the Yadkin jail is operating at full capacity, until a new jail is completed, the sheriff’s office spokesperson explained Monday.

Another court appearance for Sica in Yadkin County is tentatively set for Oct. 31.