FAIRMONT — A Fairmont man is facing felony charges in Martin County.

Michael James Pepin, 28, has been charged with two counts of domestic assault, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to the complaint:

On June 15, Fairmont police officers were dispatched to a residence in the 900 block of Prairie Avenue in Fairmont on a report of a male party who had ripped items off the wall and thrown a car seat at someone.

Upon arrival, officers observed a female party standing at the front door. The woman allowed the officers into the home.

One of the officers observed Pepin near the front doorway. Pepin denied tearing things off the wall. The woman said he tore a coat rack off the wall. The officer observed a coat rack leaning up against the wall.

The officer observed that Pepin was obviously intoxicated and asked if he had a bad day. Pepin stated, “Yes. It was a little rough.” When asked a question by the officer, Pepin was hard to understand.

Pepin admitted to being drunk and “a little bit high.” When asked what happened, Pepin indicated that when he entered the room he observed a lot of stuff was thrown around. Based upon his level of intoxication and the facts as alleged, Pepin was handcuffed and placed in a squad vehicle.

The officer then spoke with the woman, who indicated they were over at their old residence packing and she returned to their current residence to get a tool. When she returned to their old residence, Pepin was at the neighbors. She returned to their current residence and Pepin returned a short time later.

Pepin asked her to smoke a cigarette with him and she refused, which she said made him angry. She said Pepin got in her face and started screaming at her. She indicated he then picked up a child’s car seat and “full force whipped” it at her.

The woman said the car seat hit her “pretty hard” and would have hit their sleeping child in the bassinet if she had not been standing where she was. The woman showed officers a scratch on her forearm, from near her elbow down to her wrist, where the car seat struck her.

The woman said she called her father and asked him to call the police. She said Pepin then took her phone from her and asked her father if he could go over there. Her father said he could not and Pepin went over to the coat rack and pulled on the coats, pulling the rack off the wall.

The woman said he then threw chairs, and said she was scared of him because his fists were clenched most of the time.

A check of Pepin’s criminal history shows two prior qualified domestic violence related-offense convictions within the past 10 years.