The man accused of raping and strangling an 81-year-old woman in her apartment in 1989 was on parole for burglary at the time and had access to the secured elderly housing complex because his grandparents lived there, said Scott Spallina, supervisor of the city prosecutor’s elder abuse unit.

An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday charging Gerald L. Austin, 52, with second-degree murder in connection with the July 1989 death of Edith Skinner. Austin was 29 when he allegedly committed the murder.

Because Skinner was at least 60 years old, the prosecutor is seeking the state’s harshest penalty: life in prison without the opportunity for parole. The normal penalty for second-degree murder is life in prison with the possibility for parole.

Austin remains in custody unable to post $200,000 bail.

He pleaded guilty in January 1984 to second-degree burglary for breaking into Mission Houses Museum, stealing some old pictures and journals and selling them.

Circuit Judge Donald Tsukiyama sentenced Austin to five years of probation in March 1984, resentenced him to a new five-year period of probation in June 1985 for violating the terms of his release, then resentenced him to five years in prison in December 1986 for again violating his probation.

Austin was on parole at the time of Skinner’s murder up until he completed his sentence in April 1991.

Skinner’s murder remained unsolved for more than 20 years until police said they matched Austin’s DNA with that of some semen recovered from Skinner’s body.

Police said after maintenance workers at Makua Alii senior citizen housing complex on Kalakaua Avenue found Skinner’s body in her apartment July 25,1989, they discovered that Skinner’s purse, bedsheet and pillowcases were missing from the apartment.

Spallina said Skinner’s jewelry was also missing.