Michigan Couple Charged With Killing Mom’s Toddler ‘to Make Room’ for Child They’d Have Together

A Michigan mother and her former boyfriend have been charged with first degree murder in the death of her 3-year-old son more than seven years ago.

Amanda Maison, 33, and Maurice Houle, 28, were denied bond at their arraignment on Monday. Houle was also charged with three counts of resisting and obstructing a police officer in connection with his arrest on Friday, when he fought with eight different officers, WDIV reported.

The murder charges concern the death of Matthew Maison, who was found dead at his home in February 2018. An autopsy showed that he died from blunt force trauma and possible suffocation.

St. Clair County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Sparling told the court that the defendants accused each other of abusing the boy and that it was all part of the plan “put forth to kill Matthew to make room for a child that the two of them could have together.”

Sparling said that Houle would hit the toddler in the face and put him in timeout on his knees, then bang his head on the drywall. He would be locked into his room for a hours at a time without food or water, and at least once Houle put a pillow over the child’s head “and pretended like he was playing.”

Maison reportedly told investigators Houle held a pillow over the boy’s face multiple times and that she also shoved his head into a wall “forceful enough to remove the backing of the drywall itself,” Sparling said.

She also told detectives that she lied about the abuse, lied when she initially spoke with officers in 2018, and lied to Child Protective Services investigating Houle for abuse prior to the boy’s death. She also said the hadn’t taken her son to the doctor because she didn’t want them to see his injuries.

Houle and Maison are due in court again on April 22.

Killing children appears to run in the Maison family. According to the Detroit News, Amanda Maison’s brother, Andrew Maison, and his wife Hilery Maison, were convicted in 2018 — the same year Matthew was killed — in the 2015 death of Andrew’s 5-year-old daughter, Mackenzie, who weighed just 25 pounds when she died. The Maisons are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, Law&Crime reported.