East Lyme ― Police arrested a 62-year-old local man on Wednesday on charges he strangled and struck a woman he was living with in the head with a hammer, fracturing her skull in multiple places.

Kevin M. Daigneault, of 97 W. Main St., Apt. 51, was charged with first-degree assault, carrying a dangerous weapon, second-degree strangulation and first-degree unlawful restraint.

The arrest comes as the result of a months long investigation into a domestic violence incident that was reported by the 54-year-old female victim on April 28 but allegedly occurred during the overnight hours of Dec. 17, 2021.

The victim told police she was sleeping on the couch of Daigneault’s condo when he struck her in the head with a hammer six times, punched her in the nose, dug his thumbs into her eyes, choked her and blocked her from leaving the home.

The victim told police Daigneault had been upset about her making comments about going out to dinner with a male co-worker named Jesse. She had made the comments while out drinking with Daigneault at Mohegan Sun, police said.

During the alleged attack, the victim told police that Daigneault said, “What went on with Jesse?”

After the alleged attack, the victim told police that Daigneault said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you. I don’t know if I’m going to kill you,” according to the arrest warrant affidavit in the case.

Daigneault then told the victim, “We need to clean you up,” and assisted her getting to an upstairs shower, police said.

On the evening of Dec. 18, the night after the alleged assault, Daigneault transported the woman to the Pequot Emergency Medical Center in Groton for treatment. The victim was transported by ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital where she stayed for four days, as she was treated for multiple skull fractures.

The victim told a doctor she had fallen down a flight of stairs but police said medical reports indicated “that the wounds to the skull were puncture wounds and not consistent with wounds indicative of a fall down a flight of stairs.”

The victim also had suffered “numerous skull, facial and nasal fractures and lacerations of the forehead and scalp, as well as a subdural hematoma.”

By the time police started investigating, the couch where the hammer attack had allegedly occurred had been replaced with new furniture. During an interview with police, Daigneault denied assaulting the victim and said that he had awoken on the night of the alleged assault to the victim’s screaming, “Oh my God.” Daigneault said he found the victim on the couch bleeding from her head and face. He told police the victim told him she had fallen down the basement stairs and hit her head on a circular saw. Police, however, said the victim’s wounds were consistent with the claw end of a hammer.

Police did not find a claw hammer in the home but said they did find evidence of blood on the floor, wall, ceiling, lampshade and a DVD stand in the living room.

Police obtained a search warrant for the toolbox of Daigneault’s Cadillac Escalade pick-up truck. A claw hammer, which Daigneault had denied owning, was seized as evidence, police said. Forensic testing on the hammer has not yet been competed.

Held in lieu of a $150,000 bond, Daigneault was scheduled to appear Thursday in New London Superior Court. Records show Daigneault has a pending criminal case from an arrest in May for violation of a protective order.

East Lyme police said they investigated the case with the aid of Mohegan Tribal Police.

g.smith@theday.com