A homeless man recounted being attacked with a box cutter-style knife after he and another transient argued over $5 in beer money.

The May 13 altercation in a wooded area in Butler left 51-year-old Mark Graham badly bleeding from a 10-inch long and one-inch deep cut across half of his lower stomach.

Butler police a short time later arrested Scott H. Fosnaught, 54, who has no known address, and charged him with aggravated assault.

But at Fosnaught’s preliminary hearing Monday, prosecutors added a charge of attempted homicide.

District Judge Peter Shaffer ordered Fosnaught to stand trial on both felony charges. He remains in Butler County Prison on $100,000 bail.

Graham testified that he was with Fosnaught on May 11 “back in the woods” in Butler’s Clay Hills area between South Monroe and Kittanning streets. The secluded area is a place where people congregate, and sometimes drink and do drugs.

Graham told prosecutor Mark Lope, a county assistant district attorney, that he is homeless but stays with a friend in the city.

“I asked (Fosnaught) to get me some beers,” Graham testified. “I gave him $5. He said he’d be back.”

But two days passed before the men saw one another again in Clay Hills. Graham said he asked for his $5 back. Fosnaught objected, claiming he owed Graham nothing.

“He said, ‘Get away from me or I’m going to slice you,” Graham recalled. “He started swinging his knife at me.”

Graham admitted that he and Fosnaught both “had a lot to drink” before the confrontation about 2:50 p.m.

On cross-examination, he admitted he hit the knife-wielding defendant twice in the face.

“How hard did you hit him?” asked Fosnaught’s attorney, public defender Joe Smith.

“Pretty hard,” Graham said.

He said Fosnaught moments later cut him in his abdomen.

The cut stretched from the center of his abdomen to his left side across the oblique muscle, according to court documents.

Fosnaught fled and Graham walked along railroad tracks before he found a friend, who called 911.

Butler police Capt. David Dalcamo said he found the victim and had him lift up his T-shirt to check the injury. Graham was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital before being taken to Allegheny General Hospital trauma center in Pittsburgh.

Graham said he needed 14 medical staples to close the wound. He remained at the hospital for two days.

About 4:20 p.m. May 13, Dalcamo interviewed Fosnaught, who claimed he acted in self-defense after Graham hit him in the face.

Dalcamo told Smith that he doubted Fosnaught’s claim because the defendant fled and did not contact police.

Fosnaught was initially charged with aggravated assault. But after subsequently reviewing the case with the district attorney’s office, the criminal complaint was amended to include a charge of attempted homicide, Dalcamo said.

Smith asked Dalcamo if the new charge was excessive, given Graham’s injuries. Dalcamo replied that had the victim not received immediate help, he “possibly would have bled out and died.”

Later, Smith asked Shaffer to dismiss the new charge, arguing that there no evidence presented at the hearing to show Fosnaught intended to kill Graham. Lope countered that intent can be inferred because Fosnaught attacked an unarmed man with a knife.