LOCKPORT — A city limousine driver was called on to save a life March 1.

His own.

The man who stabbed and tried to rob him last spring faced him again Wednesday, this time in Niagara County Court, where the attacker was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

When Nicholas Cortese tried to rob William R. Timkey Jr. and stuck a knife in the driver’s stomach, the blade struck three organs, Timkey said in court.

Timkey said that he already had saved three lives as a South Lockport volunteer firefighter and that his training kicked in as people rushed to help save him.

“Mr. Cortese should be thanking me. If I did not have that training, he would be facing murder charges,” Timkey said.

Cortese, 21, of Woodstock Drive, Town of Tonawanda, pleaded guilty Sept. 1 to attempted second-degree robbery and attempted first-degree assault in the Timkey stabbing. He was sentenced to 15 years on those counts, as well as three years to run consecutively for his role in an armed robbery Jan. 9 in which he and another man admitted to using a shotgun and handgun to rob a man of a cell phone at Smokin’ Joe’s on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation.

In addition, Cortese will serve five years of post-release probation and was ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution.

Niagara County Court Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza denied requests for concurrent sentencing, saying Cortese needed to “take responsibility for each of those acts.”

“You had the benefit of a fabulous family and the best education, and you, of all people, should not be in this court,” Sperrazza told Cortese. “[You] made some terrible choices. You gutted this man. That is unforgiveable. If [Timkey] never forgives you, I will understand.”

Cortese asked for forgiveness, as his family sat nearby in tears.

“I apologize to [Timkey], and I apologize to my family,” he said. “I am just now beginning to realize what I did and how serious it was.”

Timkey, nearly 60, said after the court session that he is still facing more surgery. He said the attack from the 12z-inch blade severed his colon and gave him nine lacerations on his large intestine and four on his small intestine. He lifted his shirt to show the scars.

“The blade went all the way through my stomach,” Timkey said. “I looked down and saw it sticking out. He actually carved me.”

It was 10:20 p. m., and Timkey had taken his fare to the Woodlands Mobile Home Park.

After the attack, he instinctively grabbed his cell phone and jumped from his limo while it was still moving.

“It was like slow motion. I just got . . . out of there,” Timkey said. “I knew if I stayed in the van, I would die.”

He started to tear up as he remembered mobile-home park residents who came to help him that night, putting pressure on his wounds and listening to his instructions.

“I told them to keep me upright and don’t let me lie down if I pass out, or I would bleed out. I said to keep the pressure on. In first aid, it’s called the golden hour. It’s immediate treatment at the scene. And it’s strange to be the victim and be giving instructions,” he recalled.

He also remembers clearly telling them which ambulance to call and consulting with doctors as they removed his bandages in Erie County Medical Center, then seeing blood spurting from his wounds.

Timkey retired after 30 years from United Parcel Service. He said the three lives he saved as a volunteer firefighter were all while he was working that job.

“Every time I saved a life, it was when I was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be, doing a route I wasn’t used to,” he said.

Timkey said he couldn’t work for five months after the attack, losing about $50,000, and has been unable to return to firefighting.

But he chooses to look on the bright side, saying:

“I still have six wonderful grandchildren.”