A Nebraska man is in custody in Pottawattamie County, accused of committing a murder 10-years ago that was recently solved through DNA evidence. The Omaha World-Herald reports 47-year old Thomas Sanchez of La Vista, NE is charged with first-degree murder in the July 31st, 2003 stabbing of 33-year old Nelson Alvarez-Hernandez, an Omaha meatpacking plant worker who dressed as a woman, going by the name of “Selena.” Sanchez had pleaded not guilty. His trial is set to begin in April.

On Sept. 23rd, 2013, officials with the Iowa DCI lab contacted Council Bluffs Police to inform them a DNA sample from blood on a $5 bill laying next to the victim’s body, matched that of  Sanchez, who was an inmate at the Douglas County, NE., jail. Sanchez had been sentenced last July to one-year in prison after pleading no contest to the attempted distribution of methamphetamine. He was arrested on a Pott. County warrant in December and is being held in jail on $1-million bond.

Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber told the paper there was no indication that Alvarez-Hernandez’s death was a hate crime. Wilber said investigators are seeking to identify more suspects. Sanchez told investigators he did not know Alvarez-Hernandez and had never been to the scene of the crime. He said he had no idea why his DNA might be at the crime scene.

Court documents allege that Sanchez and Alvarez-Hernandez were both known drug users and that the location of the slaying was a drug house.