In a shocking revelation, a 33-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man from Michigan are facing potential life sentences for allegedly murdering the woman’s 3-year-old son nearly seven years ago. The motive behind the crime, as per investigators, was to afford another child between the two. The accused are Amanda Maison, the mother, and Maurice Houle, her then-boyfriend. Both are charged with first-degree murder in the 2018 death of young Matthew Maison. Houle is also facing three additional counts of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing a police officer, charges that arose from his behavior during his arrest last month.
The St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office reported that Matthew was found dead by his mother in his bed at their Port Huron Township home on February 18, 2018. During a preliminary hearing last month, prosecutors alleged that Matthew had suffered years of abuse at the hands of both defendants. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Josh Sparling stated that the defendants had fabricated a story of previous injuries to Matthew and lied about how these injuries occurred before speaking to investigators.
In Tuesday’s court proceedings, two detectives testified, one who investigated the case in 2018 and another who took over the case and interviewed Maison and Houle last month. The original detective testified that he noticed visible injuries on Matthew’s body, including bruises and a black eye, when he visited the Maison residence on the day of Matthew’s death. He also discovered that Matthew’s grandfather had previously reported Maison and Houle to Child Protective Services (CPS) after witnessing Houle physically abuse Matthew.
The detective further testified that during his 2018 interview with Houle, the defendant initially claimed that Maison was responsible for disciplining Matthew. However, under further questioning, Houle admitted to punishing Matthew by making him do “military time-outs,” which involved kneeling in front of a wall with his hands on his head. Prosecutors alleged that Matthew had been subjected to punishments that included being placed in timeout on his knees where his head would be banged off the drywall.
The second detective testified that during the couple’s interview in April 2025, both claimed to have seen the other attempt to smother Matthew with a pillow. Maison also alleged that Houle had killed her son and asked her to “take the fall” for him to keep him out of prison.
The judge allowed prosecutors to admit testimonial evidence that Maison became pregnant with her third child while Matthew was still alive. The couple mutually decided to have an abortion, allegedly because they could not afford the additional expense. Despite objections from Maison’s defense attorney, District Court Judge John Monaghan ruled that any prejudice against the defendants was outweighed by the evidence that Maison and Houle wanted another child and that Matthew was an impediment to that happening.
Prosecutors alleged that the couple had a “plan” to “kill Matthew to make room for a child the two of them could have together.” Judge Monaghan concluded that the state had provided enough evidence to establish probable cause to have the cases bound over to the circuit court. The date for the defendants’ first appearance in circuit court is yet to be determined.