Manhattan stab victim used last words to accuse longtime girlfriend of slaying: prosecutors

With his dying breath, Manhattan stabbing victim Alejandro Santos told a neighbor that longtime girlfriend Michelle Hernandez was responsible for his brutal slaying, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The “neighbor … saw the victim was bleeding profusely and asked what happened,” Assistant District Attorney Sean Flatow told Judge Marva Brown at Hernandez’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.

“The victim responded, ‘She stabbed me,’ ” Flatow continued, adding that Santos told his neighbor, “I’m going to pass out,” before collapsing seconds later.

Hernandez, 44, is charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing of the 47-year-old Santos in his sixth-floor apartment on W. 147th St. near Frederick Douglass Blvd. in Harlem on Sunday. She was ordered held without bail following her arraignment.

Earlier Sunday, officers responded to Santos’ apartment for reports of yelling and fighting. Neighbors called police a second time, about 1:45 p.m., after hearing screams ring out from the unit, Flatow said.

Police arrived to find Santos with two stab wounds to his chest and one to his left arm, and medics rushed him to Harlem Hospital, where he died, according to the prosecutor.

The suspect met officers covered in blood and wearing only her panties and bra in the hallway outside Santos’ apartment, insisting throughout numerous interviews that the victim had stabbed himself.

When investigators confronted her with the neighbor’s account of Santos’ final moments, she amended her story, saying the victim had told her he would blame her for the attack while stabbing himself, Flatow said.

Flatow shared additional testimony from a downstairs neighbor who told police he’d overheard Hernandez whisper in Spanish to Santos, “Don’t tell anybody who stabbed you or they’ll take me to jail.”

Santos and Hernandez met in the city’s shelter system several years ago and lived together for about two years before his death, according to Flatow.

Hernandez — who appeared in court with a black eye — told investigators that her relationship with the victim was marred by domestic violence , the prosecutor said.

Flatow noted that prior to Sunday’s stabbing, the only incident on record was from several months ago, when Santos called 911 after his girlfriend threatened to leap from a window.

An attorney for Hernandez told the judge that in addition to her black eye, his client had bruises throughout her body and previously had requested that surveillance cameras be installed in the apartment to protect herself from his repeated acts of violence.

“She asked that those cameras be installed because of the decedent’s history of violence against her,” Wilfredo Santa Ana told Judge Brown. “We are hoping those cameras recorded what she says occurred inside that apartment.

“This may very well be a case where the prosecution ultimately decides to dismiss the charges once that video becomes available to the defense,” Santa Ana added.

Hernandez has been convicted in multiple assaults since moving to the States from Puerto Rico in 2009, including once for attacking two women at a shelter in Connecticut where she kicked a woman who was eight months pregnant in the stomach, according to Flatow.

When asked why she attacked the women, Hernandez told police, “They were b—–s,” the prosecutor said.