FAIRVIEW TWP — State police have charged one of three people who they say broke into a home early Thursday morning and assaulted two residents there during an attempted robbery.

The trio had gone there looking for a big score, as much as $100,000, police said, but apparently left empty-handed.

The charged suspect also ended up laid up at a hospital after one of the occupants repeatedly stabbed him with a butcher knife.

Though they were victims of multiple crimes, the two residents will also face charges as police say they discovered evidence of possible drug manufacturing in the house during their investigation.

Savannah M. Blust, 24, and Macklin C. Haye, 24, who live at the home on the 300 block of Petrolia Road, called 911 at 12:50 a.m. to report that a masked intruder armed with pepper spray and a handgun broke in and attacked them.

Haye said he had fallen asleep on the couch in the downstairs living room when he was accosted. The intruder used pepper spray that temporarily blinded him, according to a police affidavit filed with a search warrant.

Blust, Haye's girlfriend, who had been sleeping upstairs, was awakened by the commotion. She came down the stairs and went to the kitchen, the affidavit said.

She recounted that she got a butcher knife and stabbed the intruder in the back. The masked man turned his attention on her, grabbing and dragging her by the hair.

She got away but a short time later the intruder was pointing the gun at the couple.

He eventually fled. The woman said she looked out the window and spotted three unknown people running into the woods, the affidavit said.

Police Lt. Eric Hermick said that investigators believe the couple's harrowing home invasion story to be true.

“Through forensic evidence, physical evidence and investigative interviews we're corroborated their accounts,” he said.

Police identified the alleged attacker as Patrick C. Bookwalter, 35, of Brady Township, Clarion County.

Shortly after the home invasion call, Bookwalter called 911 to report that he had been stabbed in an alley near the All Star Bar in East Brady. Hermick called the report a “fake stabbing.”

East Brady EMS responded to the alley and took him to a nearby landing zone from where he was flown to Pittsburgh by a STAT Medevac helicopter.

Bookwalter was taken to the UPMC Presbyterian trauma center in Pittsburgh with four stab wounds to his back, the largest being about 2 inches in width, according to the criminal complaint filed against him.

When asked if Bookwalter gave a statement to police, Hermick said, “He's cooperating.” Hermick would not elaborate.

As part of the investigation Bookwalter provided a blood sample and cheek swab for DNA testing.

Police have identified the defendant's two alleged accomplices and were trying to find their whereabouts.

Once apprehended, Hermick said, they will face the same charges as Bookwalter.

According to the complaint, Bookwalter told troopers at the hospital that he was solicited by two men, only one of whom he knew by name, to “hit” the house on Petrolia Road.

He said they believed Haye to be in possession of $100,000 that would be found in the kitchen of the house and in a Subaru Legacy parked in the driveway.

He told officers that his accomplices were in the garage looking for keys to the car when the struggle happened inside. They had expected the house would be unoccupied, according to charging documents.

The intruders, it turned out, took nothing. But police later — while searching the house — seized “bulk currency,” Hermick said.

At last count, Trooper James Long said this morning, police had counted $80,000. That amount, however, was expected to rise.

Police obtained a search warrant for Bookwalter's car, which they found at his house on Route 68. The 2003 Hyundai Sonata had blood “on it and in it,” Hermick said.

Investigators believe that following the home invasion, the defendant and his accomplice drove away in the car, After returning home, Hermick said, Bookwalter made the “two-minute walk” to the bar.

District Judge Wayne Seibel signed an arrest warrant for Bookwalter, charging him with robbery, burglary, felons not to possess firearms, aggravated assault, attempted theft and trespass, all felonies.

He also faces misdemeanor charges of simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, loitering and prowling at nighttime and summary harassment.

According to court records, Bookwalter was convicted in 2003, when he was 20 years old, of theft and robbery. He was sentenced to 15 to 30 months in state prison.

Doctors told police Thursday they expect Bookwalter to recover from his stab wounds, but that he would be in the hospital for at least two days.

He is under police guard, Hermick said, and would be arrested and arraigned after the hospital releases him.

While “clearing the house” on Petrolia Road, during their initial investigation, police said they saw inside the home suspected drug contraband, including green vegetable matter that they believed to be marijuana, and other equipment.

Troopers backed out of the house and returned with a search warrant. During their search, police said, they discovered evidence of possible THC oil and THC wax manufacturing, according to court documents.

THC is a psychoactive chemical found in marijuana. In oil form, it can be added to baked good or smoked with an electronic cigarette. In wax form, THC can be smoked using a vaporizer.

Before Haye and Blust were formally interviewed about what happened that night, Hermick said, both were given their Miranda warnings.

They initially claimed the suspicious equipment was for making soap, documents said. Haye, however, later admitted that the green plant matter that police found was marijuana.

The couple eventually “lawyered up,” Hermick said, and quit talking to investigators. Police said they plan to charge them with drug offenses.

Blust and Haye both have criminal records relating to drug activity. Each was sentenced to prison time after a 2014 arrest in Butler for growing marijuana plants in a house.