Man Jailed 25 Years After Escape

Martinsville, VA -- A man who walked away from a Virginia prison work detail nearly 25 years ago and lived an "exemplary" life as a Michigan businessman returned to his hometown Wednesday to finish serving time for a $10 drug deal.

Alfred Odell Martin III was flown from Detroit, booked in Martinsville and put into a cell for a Feb. 11, 1974, conviction on selling marijuana. He also faced a judge on escape and larceny charges filed after he fled two days into his drug sentence.

"Michigan may know him as the responsible businessman with a good record, but Martinsville knows him as a drug dealer," prosecutor Joan Ziglar said.

Attorneys for Martin, 49, said he will plead innocent to charges that he escaped and also never paid off a television and stereo system he bought on an installment plan from a Martinsville store. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

Martin, the fourth of 15 children, was working in a department store and doing freelance photography when he was first arrested. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with nine years suspended.

Ms. Ziglar said she would not ask the judge to have him serve all 10 years. Counting time off for good behavior, he would have served only about three months had he not fled, Ms. Ziglar said.

In 1976, then-Michigan Gov. William Milliken refused to extradite Martin to Virginia, in effect granting him legal asylum as long as he remained in Michigan. There, he married, raised three children and went to work for a mortgage company.

Martin said he never returned to Virginia during that time.

His extradition became possible in the late 1980s as a result of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that meant governors only have ministerial functions when they receive an extradition request.

That meant that Martin was in trouble last month when police stopped him for driving with expired plates. After a record check showed Martin was a fugitive, Virginia officials sought his extradition.

Michigan Gov. John Engler signed Martin's extradition warrant. On Monday, Circuit Judge William Cahalan in Detroit ruled he had no choice but to honor Virginia's request, even as he praised the life Martin had created as being "exemplary" and called his family "a credit to Michigan."

The Michigan Court of Appeals refused to block the extradition Tuesday, and Sheriff Steve Draper dispatched two deputies to bring Martin back.

"It's not my choice to decide whether this is right or wrong," Draper said. "In Michigan he may have been law abiding, but he's got to pay his debt to society here."

Copyright 1998 Associated Press.

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