NASHUA – The police know Angel “Chino” Santos all too well, but his alleged accomplice in a stabbing last year claimed to have no clue to his identity.

Now, Santos’ lawyers argue that a detective prompted the co-defendant to pick Santos out of a photo lineup, and they argue that evidence of the identification should not be allowed at Santos’ upcoming trial.

Santos, 21, formerly of 9 Kinsley St., has a lengthy prior criminal record, and he has been imprisoned since his arrest after the stabbing Sept. 5, prison and court records show.

Santos and Kyle Bouley, 25, of 28 Abbott St., are accused of breaking into a downtown residence that night, and Santos is accused of stabbing Taylor Whiting, 24, according to court records.

Officers arrested Bouley and Santos early the next morning at Bouley’s home, police said at the time.

Bouley spoke with detectives after his arrest and admitted that he had set out to confront Whiting about a drug debt that Bouley owed, according to Santos’ lawyers, public defenders Kristin Weberg and Sarah Newhall. Bouley claimed to have no idea who Santos was and told police he’d never met him before. He said Santos volunteered to go with him.

Bouley said he didn’t know the name of his co-defendant, and when Detective William Adamson showed him a lineup of several possible suspects, Bouley was unable to pick out anyone, Santos’ lawyers said.

Adamson interviewed Bouley for nearly 40 minutes, and the videorecording shows that Bouley at least twice failed to identify Santos from an array of suspect photos, suggesting that his co-defendant most closely resembled two other suspects.

After talking for 39 minutes, the lawyers wrote, Adamson left the room, announcing the interview was over. When the detective walked back into the interview room six minutes later, Santos’ lawyers wrote, the sound had been turned off, and only the video was recording.

The video shows Adamson standing in front of Bouley gesticulating, they wrote. Adamson again put the photo lineup on the table in front of Bouley, who looked at it, and then looked away. Adamson then pointed with his pen at the photo of Santos (listed in the lineup only as No. 1) and Bouley then drew a circle around it and wrote his initials, Santos’ lawyers wrote.

Santos’ lawyers argue that Adamson’s “aggressive physical behavior” and “outrageously suggestive” actions render Bouley’s identification of Santos entirely unreliable, and they contend that no evidence stemming from Bouley’s identification should be allowed to be used in court against Santos. It’s not clear whether the victim, or any other witness, can identify Santos.

“Adamson’s police report and summary of Kyle Bouley’s interview make no mention of the fact that Bouley did not even think that number one was a possibility,” until Adamson pointed him out, Santos’ lawyers wrote.

A hearing on their request is scheduled March 8, and Santos’ trial is scheduled to begin later this month.

The prosecutor, Assistant County Attorney Kent Smith, recently asked for more time to respond to their motion to suppress identification, writing that while the procedure seemed “apparently unnecessarily suggestive,” he needed to gather more information.

An admitted gang member, Santos has a long history with city police, stretching back at least to 2006, when he was 16 and allegedly pointed what appeared to be a gun at police who were chasing him.

Santos got a six-month suspended jail sentence for that incident and was arrested months later along with another teen, accused together of beating a man with a souvenir baseball bat. Santos pleaded guilty to his part in the assault and got another suspended sentence, this time 3 1? 2 to seven years in prison.

Santos was arrested in Massachusetts on robbery and weapons charges while free on bail in 2007, but the charges were dropped after witnesses and victims declined to cooperate, police said.

In 2008, Santos was sentenced to serve at least two years in prison, after he pleaded guilty to witness tampering, assault and burglary charges, in a plea deal that resolved three pending cases.

Santos admitted to punching out a 17-year-old girl on Feb. 28, 2008, breaking bones in her face, and to threatening a city woman in May 2007 that he would kill her son if the boy testified against him in a pending misdemeanor case.

He was sentenced to two to five years in prison, with a consecutive, two- to four-year sentence to remain suspended on condition of good behavior. Santos is currently serving time on those sentences, as a result of his arrest in September, prison records show.

Police claimed that Bouley and Santos broke into the house, and that Santos stabbed Whiting six times and cut a woman who tried to break up the melee.

Santos argues that he was acting in self-defense, claiming Whiting was attacking Bouley with a sword, according to court records.

Bouley is free on bail while awaiting trial, court records show. Santos is scheduled to stand trial starting March 28 on charges of first- and second-degree assault, burglary and falsifying evidence.

Andrew Wolfe can be reached at 594-6410 or awolfe@nashuatelegraph.com.