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Cold case investigation results in charges in 1989 Dorchester slaying

Print Posted by John Ellement May 19, 2011 01:36 PM

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By Globe Staff

Twenty-two years and three days after Richard "Richie" Gleason was killedinside a Dorchester building, his alleged killer will face first-degree murder charges today in a Boston courtroom.

Gleason was attacked while he was inside the kitchen of an apartment at 49 School St. in Dorchester. Gleason was stabbed in an apartment building frequented at the time by crack cocaine users, according to a statement released by Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley and Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis.

At the time, the 38-year-old Gleason worked as a laborer and as a person delivering food for a Quincy shelter.

Officials today announced that convicted drug dealer Eugene Sutton was indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury earlier this year on first-degree murder charges after the Boston police cold case squad reopened the homicide investigation in 2009.

“Two decades have passed and the years have not lessened the grief of Richie’s family or the perseverance of homicide detectives and prosecutors,’’ Davis said in the statement, adding that he hopes the arrest “provides the Gleason family with some sense of closure and peace.”

Sutton was a suspect when police originally sought Gleason’s killer, but authorities could not develop enough evidence at that time to charge him in the murder.

“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,” Conley said in a statement. “These developments are a reminder that accountability is waiting for every person who uses violence on our streets.”

Sutton is currently serving a state prison sentence on drug charges. He is due to be arraigned this afternoon in Suffolk Superior Court.