LEWISTON — Witnesses told police a Greene man stabbed the neck of a local man who was trying to protect a woman.

Paul Fernald appears in 8th District Court Friday from the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn. Christopher Williams/Sun Journal

An 8th District Court judge ordered a competency evaluation Friday for Paul A. Fernald, 25, of 45 South Hatch Hill Road, Greene, who is charged with elevated aggravated assault, a Class A felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Two misdemeanors charge falsifying physical evidence and refusing to submit to arrest.

Assistant District Attorney Neil McLean was seeking bail of $25,000 cash because the victim was still in the hospital Thursday, breathing through a tube and listed in critical condition.

Judge Jennifer Archer agreed, but also ordered that Fernald be held without bail until a hearing on probation violation that she scheduled for March 25, as requested by prosecutors.

Fernald had been convicted of felony theft and aggravated criminal mischief charges.

A police affidavit said witnesses to the March 9 incident recounted events of that night.

One witness said he saw Fernald hand something to a woman outside 130 Oxford St.

That witness said it likely was a drug transaction.

Fernald was holding onto the woman and appeared to be angry, demanding something he said belonged to him.

Johnathan Beaudette, 26, approached the two and grabbed Fernald.

The two men began fistfighting in the street, the witness said, Fernald repeating his demand for his belongings.

“Then he saw the suspect pull out a knife, or what he thinks was a knife and stab Beaudette in the shoulder area a couple of times,” Detective Joseph Philippon wrote in his affidavit.

The witness said Fernald chased the woman down an alleyway, then fled the scene in the direction of Lincoln Street.

That witness named Fernald as the suspect, having recognized him from school.

The woman told police she later found Beaudette “grabbing his neck with blood squirting everywhere,” saying: “I’m done, I’m done.”

Officers tracked him to an apartment on Shawmut Street. He was discovered climbing out a back window and was arrested.

After first denying he had any involvement in the incident, Fernald told police he was defending himself and that Beaudette had the knife.

Fernald said he had been there to sell crack cocaine to the woman.

Beaudette came out with a knife in his hand and started beating him, Fernald told police.

Fernald said he’d had no prior “beef” with the woman or Beaudette. He said the woman had taken the drugs, but hadn’t shared them as promised.

Fernald said Beaudette “fell on the knife when they were rolling about and it stabbed Beaudette in the neck.”

If Fernald were to be released on bail, Judge Archer set conditions that included no possession of alcohol, illegal drugs or marijuana (without a medical card) for which he’d be subject to random search and testing.

He is barred from having any dangerous weapons and may have no contact with Beaudette and six witnesses named in the affidavit.

Fernald was provided a court-appointed attorney.