Robert Middleton was doused with gasoline and set on fire in 1998 and died in 2011 as a result of the attack. He spent every day of his life fighting after being burned, and yesterday his parents watched as his killer was finally convicted of capital murder.
Don Willburn Collins was convicted by a jury in Galveston, Texas yesterday almost 17 years after he set fire to Middleton.
Collins faces up to 40 years in prison because he was only 13 years old at the time of the attack.
The burns that Middleton suffered covered up to 99-percent of his body and left his skin so sensitive that even sunlight was painful to him. He died just before turning 21 of a rare form of cancer suffered by burn victims, which is what made the murder charge possible.
It was determined that Middleton was the victim of the attack because Collins was trying to prevent him from telling anyone that he had sexual assaulted him two weeks prior to burning him.
Source: Chron.com, “Man convicted of capital murder in burned boy case,” by Harvey Rice, February 9, 2015