“Drugs and money” were the target of two masked men who busted into a Butler apartment in April, the alleged victim testified at a hearing Monday.

“They bum rushed me and had me up against the wall,” said 44-year-old Richard Mackalica of the intruders at his home in the 400 block of Virginia Avenue.

Along with being punched and kicked, Mackalica recounted, he was stabbed with a knife by at least one of the men.

The assailants would eventually leave. But minutes later, both returned. However, this time he fought back with knives of his own, leaving the suspects in need of hospital care.

District Judge Pete Shaffer, following Mackalica’s testimony, ruled that Jason Roberts, 29, of Butler stand trial on felony charges of aggravated assault, conspiracy, robbery, burglary and trespass in the alleged April 19 home invasion.

Shaffer at a preliminary hearing in June ordered Roberts’ suspected accomplice, 24-year-old Steven Lee McCardle of Butler, held for court on similar charges. That case is pending trial.

Both defendants remain in the Butler County Prison: McCardle on

$100,000 bail and Roberts on $50,000 bail.

Mackalica testified he was sleeping in the early morning of April

19 when he was awakened by two men who stormed into his apartment.

Both suspects had ski masks or bandannas over their faces, but he recognized Roberts, a one-time marijuana customer.

During questioning by Roberts’ court-appointed attorney, Michael Jewart, Mackalica admitted he previously sold marijuana out of his Virginia Avenue apartment.

He claimed he no longer is involved in the illicit trade.

Mackalica told Jewart the defendants were after “drugs and money”

when they forced their way into his home, armed with steak knives and a baseball bat, and began pummeling him.

He also conceded he believed Roberts and McCardle were possibly impaired by drugs that night.

“They were kicking me, stabbing me, punching me — whatever they he could do to keep me down,” he recalled.

At one point, while McCardle kept Mackalica at bay, Roberts went rooting around the apartment.

Butler police Lt. James Hollobaugh, who questioned the alleged victim during direct examination, asked what was stolen.

“A little bit of marijuana, two cell phones and my (marijuana) pipe,” Mackalica replied.

He guessed he was stabbed “14 or 15 times.”

Both defendants left him bruised and bloodied.

“I was trying to stop my head and back from bleeding,” he testified, when Roberts and McCardle returned 10 to 15 minutes later, again bursting through the door.

But Mackalica said he was ready for them.

“I defended myself with two kitchen knives,” he said.

During the skirmish, he apparently cut both suspected intruders, who ended up at Butler Memorial Hospital with stab wounds about 3:35 a.m.

McCardle, who was stabbed twice in the lower left leg, was in the emergency room when police were called to the hospital, according to court documents. Roberts had a cut on his left wrist.

Officers eventually tracked down Mackalica, who did not immediately seek his own hospital treatment. Jewart wondered why.

“Because I had a warrant for my arrest,” Mackalica told the attorney.

That warrant, court records showed, was issued in connection with a Butler County Drug Task Force investigation in 2014 that charged him with selling marijuana.

Mackalica said he eventually went to the hospital “because I was getting bad headaches” following the suspected assault.

He said he suffered cuts on the head, back and arms, as well as a black eye and a fractured cheekbone.

Police said Roberts and McCardle initially claimed they were the victims of a strong-armed robbery. Later, court documents said, they confessed to having targeted Mackalica for “weed, pills and money.”

Mackalica, meanwhile, is also awaiting trial on felony drug charges for allegedly selling marijuana to a police informant on two separate days in April 2014 in Butler.