CONROE, Texas — In the years that followed the 1998 attack that horribly burned her then-8-year-old son, Colleen Middleton felt fear and frustration over the possibility that the person she believed was responsible would never be taken to trial.
That fear and frustration was replaced by relief Thursday as a judge ruled that a Texas man accused of dousing the boy with gasoline and setting him on fire when he was a teenager can be tried as an adult for murder after the victim died from his burns 13 years later.
Don Willburn Collins was 13 when authorities allege he attacked Robert Middleton on his 8th birthday near the younger boy’s home in Splendora, about 35 miles northeast of Houston. Middleton was burned across 99 percent of his body and endured years of physical therapy before he died in 2011 from skin cancer blamed on his burns.
Colleen Middleton said she is happy her son will finally get his day in court.