Sarasota police investigators say DNA evidence allowed them to tie a convicted sex offender to a 1988 murder of a Venice woman.

The Sarasota Police Department announced Tuesday that it has charged 62-year-old David L. Stephens with homicide and sexual assault for the suffocation death of 23-year-old Judith Doherty.

Stephens was convicted in 1989 of armed sexual battery and burglary for another attack and was scheduled to be released from prison in 2021.