$8 million bond set for suspect in murder of marriage counselor

CLEVELAND - A judge set an $8 million bond and ordered a mental evaluation for suspected murderer Maurice Lyons.

Lyons, 38, was arrested on Monday, and on Wednesday, he was charged with aggravated murder, according to Cleveland police.

He has also been charged on a domestic violence warrant. The judge set an additional $1 million bond in that case, taking it from $7 million to $8 million.

Police said Lyons stabbed his wife, Tonya Hunter-Lyons, 17 times, in the garage behind her home.

The prosecution told the court, police found Hunter-Lyons' blood in Lyons' car and on clothes stashed at his mother's house.

The victim's 4-year-old can be seen on video from that morning being left in the middle of a Cleveland street. The boy eventually led police to his mother’s body. The prosecution calls him the only eye witness to the murder.

Tonya Hunter-Lyon's son was initially placed in foster care, but Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services told NewsChannel5 that the boy has been placed with a relative on his mother's side of the family.

Hunter-Lyons, a 42-year-old marriage counselor, was remembered during a rally Wednesday night.