PORT HURON, Mich. (Court TV) — A Michigan man offered an apology at his sentencing for the murder of his girlfriend’s young son, but the judge wasn’t convinced.
“I don’t believe you’re sorry for what you did,” Judge Cynthia Lane told defendant Maurice Houle. “I think you’re sorry you were caught.”
Maurice Houle appeared at sentencing on Aug. 27, 2026. (Court TV)
Houle, 29, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of 3-year-old Matthew Maison, who was killed in 2018. Houle had been in a relationship with Matthew’s mother, Amanda Maison; prosecutors said the two abused the child for years before ultimately killing him and trying to cover up their crime.
Maison pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2025; Houle entered his plea in June 2026. At her plea, Maison admitted that during her relationship with Houle, the couple consistently abused Matthew, including pushing the child’s head into a wall during a “military time-out.” At his own plea hearing, Houle claimed that Maison was the one to kill her own child, saying that he had sent the child’s mother into his room to “shut him up.”
“The child was bruised from foot to eyebrow, with just a plethora — I don’t have time to name as many injuries,” prosecutor Joshua Sparling said Thursday at Houle’s sentencing hearing, describing injuries that included petechiae from strangulation and injuries to the victim’s genitals. A “very large nailprint directly underneath” Matthew’s chin, Sparling said, “was much too large to be Amanda Maison’s fingerprint.”
Sparling detailed some of the “reprehensible acts” the two defendants inflicted on the child: “Dragging, smashing his head into the wall, military time-outs, locking him in his room.”
“Nothing is going to bring this child back, and [Houle] is not the actual person who committed the murder itself,” Houle’s attorney, Jerome Sabbota, said as he asked Lane to consider a sentence toward the lower end of the guidelines. “He’s going to get a substantial sentence. You’re talking about 20 or 25 years; that’s a lot of time, especially when you’re [29],” Sabbota said. “You’re losing your whole life, basically. And if you survive, maybe you’ll come out. There’s no guarantee after the 25 years he’ll come out because he has to come in front of the parole board. The parole board has to release him.”
Matthew Maison (Amy Maison via Facebook)
Matthew’s grandmother, Amy Maison, spoke directly to the defendant and questioned his version of the child’s death. “I know you contributed to most of the bruises that night, and you put the pillow over his face. I know it deep from within my heart and soul. While Amanda participated and didn’t protect Matthew, you were the one who murdered him,” she said. “It was obvious that you and your mother hated Matthew from day number one.”
Houle wrote an apology letter, which Sabbota read on his behalf, saying his client was too nervous to read it himself. “I would like to say first of all, I’m so sorry,” it began, concluding with, “This life is short; I see that now. I try to enjoy every moment of my life. I ask for forgiveness from you and everyone else.”
“Mr. Houle wrote a letter that his attorney [read] that said, ‘I try to enjoy every moment of my life,’ Sparling shot back. “Well, he robbed that of Matthew.”
Sparling called Houle “a completely selfish and self-centered individual,” who “treated [Matthew] like a red-headed stepchild and constantly abused him over the course of the years.”
When Houle attempted to offer another apology, this time at the podium, he faced questions from Lane.
Houle: “I just want to say I’m sorry for what I’ve done. If I could take it back, I would. There’s nothing I can do now. I’m sorry for everybody. If I’d have known better, I would have came forward sooner.”
Lane: “What do you mean by that sir, your last comment?”
Houle: “If I would have known that it was part of the law, to like, I don’t know.”
Judge: “Didn’t know what? I just want to understand what you’re saying.”
Houle: “Not saying anything. I don’t know. I was stupid. I should have come forward and said what happened sooner is what I’m trying to say.”
Houle and Amanda Maison concealed the reality of Matthew’s death for months; when he was finally arrested, he attacked the police officers who were trying to arrest him. He pleaded guilty to three charges of assaulting police officers and resisting arrest.
“I am both perplexed and appalled by the utter disdain with which you treated this child,” Lane said as she began to pronounce Houle’s sentence. “I cannot figure out why you treated him that way, why you obviously felt that way. Was it because the child was not your biological child? Perhaps, but it doesn’t matter.”
Lane sentenced Houle to 31 to 60 years in prison for the murder charge; the murder sentence will be served concurrently with sentences of up to two years for the charges stemming from his arrest.
Amanda Maison’s sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 11.
