BREAKING NEWS:

A Long Beach man has been extradited to Orange County from Nevada in relation to a stabbing murder that took place in Sunset Beach more than two decades ago.

Paul Gentile Smith, 49, is charged with one felony count of murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Smith is accused of murdering Robert Haugen, 29, in Haugen’s Sunset Beach apartment on Oct. 24, 1988. According to the Orange County District Attorney’s office, which identifies Haugen as a marijuana dealer and a high school friend of Smith, the victim was stabbed multiple times and left on the bed, after which the attacker set the apartment on fire to destroy evidence and fled the scene.

Although blood belonging to Haugen and an unknown second person was collected at the scene, the case soon went cold, according to the District Attorney’s office. Smith was arrested in Nevada for domestic violence in 2007, and his DNA was linked to the blood found in Haugen’s apartment in January of this year.

— Michael Miller