AUBURN — A Lewiston woman who suffered serious stab wounds at the hands of her apartment roommate said in court Thursday that he was a “nice guy” who normally didn’t behave that way.

Cathy Mason, 57, of 18 Blake St. told a judge in Androscoggin County Superior Court that the man who stabbed her with a kitchen knife as she slept, telling her, “This is your night to die,” wasn’t acting like himself the night of Sept. 12.

Mark McLaughlin, 51, was sentenced to 15 years, but will serve seven years in prison followed by six years of probation on a charge of elevated aggravated assault. Two other counts, attempted murder and aggravated assault, were dropped.

He told Justice MaryGay Kennedy that Mason was like a sister. The two had come to Maine from Chicago. Although they are longtime friends, they have no romantic relationship, his attorney said.

“I’m so sorry about what happened,” McLaughlin said. “I take full responsibility for what I did.”

His lawyer, James Howaniec, said McLaughlin suffered from mental illness and had been treated more than 100 times over the past 30 years. He has been prescribed various psychotropic drugs to treat his chronic depression, Howaniec said.

His condition worsened when he started drinking, Howaniec said. Mason told the judge that McLaughlin had been sober when they came to Lewiston. But after a couple of months, McLaughlin “slipped.” He’d been drinking beer while on medication the night of the stabbing.

McLaughlin said he remembered little about the incident.

Deputy District Attorney Craig Turner outlined the case he would have presented at trial.

Mason walked from her apartment to Central Maine Medical Center after she was stabbed, leaving a trail of blood. She’d been stabbed several times. Her wounds “could easily have been fatal,” Turner said.

A Lewiston police officer went to her apartment building and saw drops of blood on the stair treads leading up to and in front of the couple’s apartment.

The officer knocked on the apartment door. It was opened by McLaughlin, who wore only boxer shorts and held a knife. His face and hands were covered with blood, Turner said.

After asking him three times to drop the knife, McLaughlin put it on a chair. He was taken into the hallway and secured, Turner said.

Mason told police she was in bed when McLaughlin came into her room and told her: “This is your night to die.” He stabbed her several times before she was able to flee her bed. She struggled with him before fleeing into the hallway. There, McLaughlin pulled her hair to keep her from escaping. She said she thinks McLaughlin stabbed her in the back as she was heading for the building’s exit.

She managed to wrest the knife from him as he repeated his threat. When McLaughlin lunged at her, she slashed the knife at him. She left the building as he followed. She threw the knife in some tall weeds before walking to the hospital.

McLaughlin gave police a different account of the events that night, but in court acknowledged the prosecutor’s narrative was accurate.

Turner said McLaughlin told police that night that he and Mason hated each other. In court, McLaughlin said he didn’t remember telling that to police. He and Mason told the judge they didn’t hate each other.

McLaughlin also suffered injuries that night, including a laceration to the lower abdomen, a puncture wound to the upper chest and a laceration to the upper left eye. Paramedics took him to Central Maine Medical Center.

McLaughlin told the judge he believed a jury could have found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt had the case gone to trial. He said he was pleading guilty because he had committed the crime.

Howaniec asked Justice Kennedy to consider a shorter prison stay than the seven years recommended by Turner. Kennedy told McLaughlin, who had a prior conviction for aggravated assault in 2002 after beating a man severely with an ashtray, that the prosecutor’s proposed sentence was “very generous and appropriate in this case.”

“You are remarkably lucky,” Kennedy said, telling McLaughlin the injuries to Mason could have been fatal, “as is she.”