A Cape Coral man accused in the 1996 fatal shooting of a police officer is being extradited to North Carolina on a first-degree murder charge.

At about 2 a.m. Friday, Scott Vincent Sica, 36, of 2059 Ottersrest Lane, was released from the Lee County Jail into the custody of authorities. He is being transported to North Carolina, where the warrant was issued from.

“He’s been picked up,” Sgt. Stephanie Eller, a spokeswoman for the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, said Friday afternoon.

Local attorney Stu Pepper, who was hired by Sica’s family to serve as counsel until he was transported, said his client waived extradition.

“He was expecting it,” he said Friday.

Sica was arrested Oct. 3 on the warrant for first-degree murder in the death of Sgt. Gregory Keith Martin, of the Jonesville Police Department.

He has since claimed he is innocent and even cooperated with police.

According to Pepper, authorities approached Sica before his arrest and asked that he provide samples, like DNA and fingerprints. He was told about the murder case and having no problem assisting, he submitted samples.

Pepper questioned why his client had to provide samples at all.

In 1999, Sica was sentenced in the Middle District of Tennessee to 57 months in federal prison for armed bank robbery and 60 months for carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence – 117 months consecutively.

He also pleaded guilty to a second count of armed bank robbery regarding an incident in Lee County. Sica again received 57 months in federal prison for the conviction, but the sentence ran concurrent with the Tennessee one.

Samples were taken from him during his federal incarceration.

Pepper reported Tuesday that Sica said he would do time for something he did but not for something that he did not do, referring to Martin’s death.

He said Sica did not know what evidence linked him to the murder.

The Jonesville Police Department has reported that it is not releasing any more details in an effort to protect the integrity of the case, according to the Yadkin Ripple. More evidence was being processed to further the case.

At 2:42 a.m. Oct. 5, 1996, Martin conducted a traffic stop on a red, Dodge Ram pickup truck on Interstate 77 in Yadkin County, according to authorities. He was shot multiple times and left for dead on the shoulder of the highway.

The shooter reportedly later stole a van from a parking lot, located about five miles from the crime scene. It belonged to a company called Lucia.

Martin, 30, had been with the department for three years.

In May 2005, the well-know television show “America’s Most Wanted” spotlighted the case. It re-aired the story two times the following year.

According to the show’s Web site, the Dodge truck had been stolen from a car dealership in Princeton, W.V. Witnesses reported that a man was looking at the truck on Oct. 1, 1996, days before its theft and the fatal shooting.

Composite drawings were created based on witness statements.