A Penn State student was charged Tuesday with attempted homicide after allegedly stabbing a friend early that morning near Scranton.

The student, Marcus J. Espenlaub, then allegedly handed his friend his cell phone to call for help.

Espenlaub, 21, was allegedly involved in an early morning fight with Craig Wandalowski, also 21, who is in stable condition at Community Medical Center in Scranton, Clarks Summit Police Chief Joe English told the Scranton Times Tribune earlier this week.

The two men knew each other from Temple University, which they both attended until Espenlaub transferred to Penn State two years ago.

English said the two men had been consuming alcohol in Philadelphia and went to an apartment to meet friends. At the apartment, Espenlaub got into a fight, which Wandalowski broke up, English said.

The two men later left the apartment to go to Wandalowski's parents' house in Clarks Summit. On the way, Wandalowski taunted Espenlaub for getting involved in the fight. When the two arrived at the home, Espenlaub allegedly took out a penknife, grabbed Wandalowski from the back and cut him in the front.

Espenlaub then gave his friend his cell phone to call 911, English said.

English was not available for comment last night.

Rob Rowland (senior-English), one of Espenlaub's best friends, was surprised when he heard about the incident. A co-worker of another of Espenlaub's friends noticed that he

and Espenlaub had friends in common on www.thefacebook.com and notified those people of the Scranton Times Tribune article about the incident.

Rowland said no one ever expected to hear something like this about Espenlaub.

"When I first met him, he struck me as the nicest, most complacent kid I'd ever met," he said. "You felt bad poking fun at him -- he was that nice."

After Rowland found out about the incident, he went to Espenlaub's realtor to get an extra key for his apartment to feed his fish. Rowland offered identification to Espenlaub's realtor for security purposes, but he was still denied access.

"His fish are going to die," he said.

Rowland said Espenlaub transferred from Temple University because the city lifestyle in Philadelphia wasn't for him.

Espenlaub had been having some serious anxiety problems, Rowland said, and he was put on medication, which, according to police, had been mixed with alcohol at the time of the incident.

"He was even more complacent," he said. "He was warned not to mix [the medication] with alcohol."

Espenlaub was also charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and making terroristic threats. He was held for observation and jailed, but he was released from Lackawanna County prison yesterday, Rowland said.

--The Scranton Times Tribune contributed to this report.