A Michigan mother charged alongside her boyfriend earlier this year with killing her toddler son to “make room” for a child the couple would have together pleaded guilty this week and will testify against the boyfriend.
Amanda Mae Maison, 33, entered the guilty plea on Wednesday to a charge of second degree murder in the death of 3-year-old Matthew Maison, the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office said.
Maison and Maurice Houle, 25, were arrested in April and charged with the boy’s February 2018 death, as CrimeOnline reported. An autopsy showed that he died from blunt force trauma and possible suffocation.
St. Clair County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Sparling at the time of the arrests 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. The boy 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.
In court on Wednesday, Maison admitted that Houle abused Matthew “and that she willingly participated in the intentional concealment of Matthew’s injuries to Child Protective Services and Law Enforcement investigations from 2016 through the 2018 murder investigation,” the sheriff’s office said.
She further admitted participating in the abuse and “that she participated with Maurice Houle in activiely contriving a plan to conceal the manner of Matthew’s death from law enforcement.”
Her plea includes testifying against Houle when he goes to trial next year. As a result of the plea, Maison’s bond was cancelled and she was remanded to jail pending sentencing, when she faces up to life in prison.
The sheriff’s office said it “has been unwavering in it’s [sic] commitment to bring to bring justice for Matthew,” although they have not explained why it took seven years to file charges.
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[Featured image: Amanda Maison and Maurice Houle/St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office. Center: Matthew Maison/Facebook]
