A Bronx man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the 1999 stabbing death of his upstairs neighbor, prosecutors said.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced Tuesday that Curtis Batchelor, 44, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and five years’ post-release supervision. Batchelor pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on Feb. 27.

“More than two decades have passed since the defendant killed his neighbor, a 56-year-old woman who lived on the floor above him," Clark said in a statement. "DNA taken from another crime he committed in 2017 connected him to the 1999 crime scene. The defendant believed he had gotten away with her killing, but in the end justice prevailed.”

According to prosecutors, who cited the investigation, between May 25, 1999 and May 27, 1999, the defendant stabbed Elsa Grullon more than twenty times in the face, neck and chest with a knife while he raped her. Grullon was discovered dead in her Gerard Avenue apartment on May 27, 1999 by a family member.

Subsequently, Batchelor was arrested and convicted in January 2016 for a minor crime and his DNA was taken and catalogued. In March 2016, the DNA was found to allegedly match the DNA recovered from the Grullon’s body. Batchelor was arrested on Feb. 27, 2017 in connection to Grullon's death.

As part of the plea deal a rape charge was dismissed in the case.