More than 20 years after Richard Gleason was stabbed to death in Dorchester, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis and Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced the indictment and arrest of a former neighborhood resident for his homicide.

The Suffolk County Grand Jury on March 28 returned an indictment charging EUGENE SUTTON (D.O.B. 5/16/65) with first-degree murder for Gleason’s May 16, 1989, slaying inside a School Street apartment then frequented by crack cocaine users. Sutton will be arraigned at 2:30 this afternoon in the Magistrate’s Session of Suffolk Superior Court.

Police Commissioner Edward Davis stated, “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.”

“It might be days, weeks, years, or decades, but Boston Police and Suffolk prosecutors won’t quit while there’s a chance of finding justice,” District Attorney Conley said. “These developments are a reminder that accountability is waiting for every person who uses violence on our streets.”

Gleason, a 38-year-old man who worked as a laborer and also delivered food for a Quincy shelter, was stabbed multiple times inside the kitchen area of an apartment at 49 School St. Investigators say Sutton was a person of interest at the time but the state of the evidence was insufficient to charge him until recently.

In 2009, members of the Boston Police Department’s Cold Case Squad began a re-examination of Gleason’s death that included making contact with witnesses in the decades-old case. Those efforts led to a grand jury investigation this year that resulted in his indictment. Sutton is currently serving a state prison sentence for unrelated drug charges.