A man and a woman fled from a deputy and pushed their way into an occupied North Whidbey house in an effort to avoid arrest, according to court documents.

Prosecutors charged one of the suspects, Forrest E. Nelson, 28, in Island County Superior Court Dec. 31 with burglary in the first degree. If convicted, he could face up to nine years and eight months in prison under the standard sentencing range.

Nelson is identified as a transient in court papers.

Deputy Shawn Engert with the Island County Sheriff’s Office was looking for Nelson, who was wanted on a Department of Corrections warrant, and saw him and a woman get into a car north of Oak Harbor.

As the deputy pursued them, the car turned into a driveway on Hamilton Drive and the occupants got out, rushing to the front door of a house.

The woman pounded on the door and yelled for the residents to let her in.

The door cracked open and the woman pushed it open further; the woman and Nelson ran inside, pushing the person at the door, Engert wrote in his report on the incident.

The deputy heard people yelling, asking who the intruders were and telling them to get out of the house.

Engert entered the house, gun drawn, and arrested Nelson.

The woman squeezed past the residents and ran into a bathroom and then a bedroom, the report states.

The officers searched the house and found a window in a bedroom was open; the deputy suspected that she escaped out of the window. Law enforcement checked the area in search of her.

After the police left, one of the residents called 911 to report that the woman had emerged from a closet and was yelling at someone by the wrong name. Deputies returned and arrested the woman on a warrant, according to court documents.

The woman has not been charged but is being held in jail on $10,000 bail.

In a separate case from last June, prosecutors also charged Nelson Dec. 31 with possessing heroin and escape from community custody.

An officer spotted Nelson, who was wanted on a warrant, in front of Walmart and arrested him; suspected heroin and hypodermic needles were discovered during a search of Nelson.