A Harlem woman has been charged with murder over the weekend stabbing of her boyfriend — who identified her as his alleged attacker before dying, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Michelle Hernandez, 44, is accused of killing her 47-year-old beau Alejandro Santos, who stumbled out of their West 147th Street apartment Sunday afternoon banging on neighbors’ doors while bleeding out of wounds to his chest and arm.
“She stabbed me,” Santos reportedly told a neighbor who opened their door, before saying “I think I’m going to pass out” and collapsing, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan criminal court.
Hernandez then emerged from the apartment and told neighbors Santos had been stabbed and where the knife was — before allegedly kneeling down and whispering in the victim’s ear, an assistant district attorney said during Hernandez’s Tuesday arraignment.
“Don’t tell anyone who stabbed you or they’ll take me to jail,” she allegedly told him.
Santos was rushed to Harlem Hospital and pronounced dead.
Hernandez was taken in for questioning and interviewed twice by cops — both times waffling on facts of the situation but remaining adamant throughout that Santos stabbed himself, according to the prosecutor.
When police asked her about Santos’ dying claim to their neighbor that she had stabbed him, Hernandez insisted that before he stabbed himself he said he was going to tell people she had done it.
Hernandez had a cut on her hand possibly consistent with knife use, and during a search of the apartment police recovered security cameras and a pair of bloodied knives, the ADA said.
She was charged Monday, with police citing a “domestic dispute” that allegedly led to the stabbing.
The couple had met a few years ago when they were living in a shelter together, and had moved in about two years ago, according to the prosecutor.
During that time they had at least one previous incident, where 911 was called after Hernandez reportedly threatened to jump out of their window, it was also revealed in court.
Hernandez has a history of drug use and violent volatile behavior.
Previous incidents include kicking a woman who was 8-months pregnant in the stomach during a fight at a shelter where she lived, breaking another shelter resident’s arm in 2017, the prosecutor said. She was sentenced to two years probation, and later served 10 months in jail.
She was ordered held without bail and is due back in court on May 22.