Overview
- On June 28, 1998 in Splendora, Texas, 13-year-old Don Collins tied 8-year-old Robbie Middleton to a tree, doused him with gasoline, and set him on fire on the boy’s birthday.
- Middleton suffered burns over 99% of his body, underwent more than 150 surgeries, and died in April 2011 from skin cancer attributed to the burns.
- Seventeen days before he died, Middleton recorded a 27-minute video naming Collins and alleging a prior rape, which later proved crucial to the murder case.
- Collins was initially arrested and released after the attack, later failed to register as a sex offender, and was already incarcerated for sexually assaulting an eight-year-old when Middleton’s death was ruled a homicide.
- A jury convicted Collins of murder in February 2015, earning a maximum 40-year sentence, and a separate civil case awarded Middleton’s parents a symbolic $150 billion as media now revisit the case around the 11-year mark.