Man charged following domestic dispute

FARMINGTON – A 31-year-old Farmington man was charged with felonious restraint, armed criminal action and second-degree domestic assault following a dispute that occurred Sunday.

William T. Brewer II was charged Monday and is being held in the St. Francois County Jail on $150,000 bond.

According to a probable cause statement filed in the associate circuit court, Brewer assaulted his estranged wife by holding a loaded gun to her head and by threatening to kill her.

Brewer reportedly entered the home by kicking in the front door. He then assaulted the woman by hitting her and grabbing her repeatedly.

He refused to leave the residence, grabbed her cell phone from her as she was calling 911 for help, cut or removed her home phone lines, and disabled the home phone by removing the battery.

Farmington Police dispatchers received a 911 call at 5:15 a.m. Sunday. The woman on the other end said, “there’s a man in my house” and was only able to give her house number but no street name before the phone went dead.

Officers quickly started searching all the streets in Farmington with a matching house number. They found 12 streets which had a residence with the same number. Officers began searching those houses and found the woman in the fourth house they searched.

Brewer could be sentenced up to seven years on the felonious restraint and the assault charges. He could be sentenced to a term of not less than three years for armed criminal action.

Brewer was also charged with second-degree domestic assault in October of 2002. The charge is still pending.

That charge states he caused physical injury to the same woman by choking her. The woman currently does have a restraining order against him.