An accused panhandler who tried to stab a man after prosecutors say he refused to hand over a cigarette or money was sentenced this week to 10 days in jail.

Michael Curtis, the man who was attacked, said Jason Lee Paulson approached him in downtown Portland at Southeast Sixth Avenue and Stark Street last Aug. 22. The two men didn't know each other.

Curtis said he used a profanity to tell Paulson to leave him alone.

But Paulson became enraged, pulled out a knife and swung it at Curtis' neck, according to Curtis and a probable cause affidavit. A security guard standing nearby witnessed the attempted stabbing.

Curtis, 36, escaped without injury.

Paulson was scheduled to go to trial in Multnomah County Circuit Court but instead pleaded no contest to attempted second-degree assault.

As part of a plea agreement, Judge Benjamin Souede on Tuesday sentenced Paulson to the jail time, anger management counseling, 48 hours of community service and three years of probation.

Jason Lee Paulson (left) appeared in Multnomah County Circuit Court with his defense attorney Gayle Kvernland (right).

Paulson’s defense attorney, Gayle Kvernland, disagreed with the prosecution’s version of events. Kvernland said Curtis got in a shoving match with her client, who pulled out a key, not a knife.

“My client actually felt a little, as he likes to say, disrespected by this gentleman saying negative things about homeless people and just disparaging remarks about him in general, when he was in fact not homeless,” Kvernland said.

Although Curtis didn’t attend the hearing, prosecutor Nicole Hermann read a statement from him. Curtis said that since Paulson tried to stab him in the neck, he has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, depression and “the uneasiness of feeling generally unsafe on the streets of Portland.”

Curtis wrote that the attack has taken the “normalcy” out of his life.

“Still I have not been able to purge these events from my mind,” he wrote. “The simple fact that someone would try to murder another human being over being denied a cigarette, then continue to stop them, speaks loudly as to this man’s mental state.”

Paulson shook his head as he listened to Curtis’ words.

Curtis requested anger-management counseling for Paulson.

“My only wish is that Mr. Paulson makes positive life changes and gives back to the community for his crime,” he wrote.

-- Aimee Green