Eugene Sutton, 46, will be arraigned today in Suffolk Superior Court on charges he stabbed Richard Gleason to death in a crack den on School Street on May 16, 1989.

Boston Police cold-case investigators took up Gleason's case in 2009 and spent two years re-interviewing original witnesses and following up new leads, according to the Boston Police Department and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.

Officials said witnesses from 20 years ago made statements identifying Sutton. In addition, blood recovered from Gleason's clothing was tested for DNA - which matched Sutton's DNA profile, the DA's office said.

Two decades have passed and the years have not lessened the grief of Richie's family or the perseverance of homicide detectives and prosecutors. I hope that this development made possible by the relentless efforts of the Cold Case Squad, the determination of Suffolk County prosecutors and the cooperation of witnesses provides the Gleason family with some sense of closure and peace.

According to the DA's office, Gleason, then 38, worked as a laborer and delivered food for a Quincy shelter. He was found with multiple stab wounds inside the kitchen of an apartment at 49 School St.

Sutton, a Dorchester resident now in prison on unrelated drug charges, was targeted in the initial investigation, but investigators were unable to gain enough evidence to charge him - until the cold-case unit began talking to witnesses again.