New information has been revealed in the case of a 33-year-old mother and a 28-year-old man in Michigan who are facing possible life sentences for allegedly murdering the woman’s 3-year-old son nearly seven years ago in order to afford to have another child together.
During Tuesday’s court proceedings for Matthew Maison’s mother, Amanda Maison, and her then-boyfriend, Maurice Houle, both of whom are charged with first-degree murder in the boy’s death in 2018, investigators provided additional details about his death. Houle is also charged with three additional counts of assault, resisting, or obstructing a police officer stemming from his alleged actions when arrested last month.
According to the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office, Matthew’s mother discovered his body in his bed inside the family’s Port Huron Township home on February 18, 2018.
During a preliminary hearing last month, prosecutors stated that Matthew had suffered “years of abuse at the hands of both defendants,” according to courtroom footage posted by Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV.
“We came to realize of a scheme where both defendants conjured up this lie of previous injuries to the victim in our case, Matthew Maison, and came up with the lie about how the injury occurred prior to talking to investigators,” Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Josh Sparling said at the April hearing, adding that both defendants “admitted” that Matthew was abused.
Prosecutors called two detectives as witnesses on Tuesday, one who investigated the case in 2018 and another who took over and interviewed Maison and Houle last month, according to the Times Herald report.
The original detective testified that when he arrived at the Maison residence on the day of Matthew’s death, he noticed the child’s visible injuries, which included bruises and black eye. Soon after, he discovered that Matthew’s grandfather had already reported Maison and Houle to Child Protective Services.
The CPS investigation began after Maison claimed she witnessed Houle physically abuse Matthew because the child spilled some food. She reportedly told her father about what she had witnessed, and he contacted CPS. However, when authorities arrived at the Maison home, the mother changed her story and severed ties with her father.
The same detective testified that when he interviewed Houle in 2018, the defendant initially claimed that Maison was responsible for disciplining Matthew, the two defendants’ biological child. However, when questioned further, the detective admitted that Houle occasionally punished Matthew by forcing him to perform “military time-outs,” which involved kneeling in front of a wall with his hands on his head.
Last month, prosecutors claimed that Matthew had received punishments such as “being placed in timeout on his knees where his head would be banged off the drywall.”
The new detective testified that when the couple was interviewed in April 2025, both claimed to have seen the other try to smother Matthew with a pillow.
Maison also claimed that Houle murdered her son and even asked her to “take the fall” for him to keep him out of jail.
According to the Times Herald, the judge agreed to allow prosecutors to present testimonial evidence that Maison became pregnant with her third child while Matthew was still alive, but the couple mutually decided to have an abortion. Despite wanting another child together, the couple allegedly decided they couldn’t afford it.
District Court Judge John Monaghan overruled Maison’s defense attorney’s objections, determining that any prejudice against the defendants was outweighed by evidence that Maison and Houle desired another child and that Matthew was an impediment to that happening.
Prosecutors claimed last month that the couple had a “plan” to “kill Matthew to make room for a child the two of them could have together.”
Monaghan ultimately determined that the state had presented sufficient evidence to establish probable cause to bind the cases over to the circuit court. It was unclear when the defendants would make their first appearance in circuit court.