Judge: Man can be tried for murder in teen act
CONROE — In the years that followed the 1998 attack that horribly burned her then-8-yearold 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, who was 13 when authorities say he doused the boy with gasoline and set him on fire, can be tried as an adult for murder.
Don Willburn Collins was 13 when authorities allege he attacked Robert Middleton on his eighth 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.
“When Robert died we were thinking maybe nothing will ever happen, maybe someone is just going to get away with what they did to him,” she said. “It’s been a long road.”
Robert Middleton named Collins as his attacker and the older boy was arrested in 1998. Collins spent several months in juvenile detention but was released after prosecutors said they didn’t have enough evidence to pursue the case.
Shortly before he died, Middleton gave a videotaped deposition in which he accused Collins for the first time of sexually assaulting him two weeks before the attack. The sexual assault allegation prompted investigators to reopen the case. Prosecutors charged the now 28-yearold Collins with murder last year, but they needed to move the case from juvenile to adult court to take him to trial.
After a three-day hearing on the issue this week, state District Judge Kathleen Hamilton ruled that Collins could be tried for murder by an adult court.
“Because the state did not have probable cause to proceed in juvenile court and new evidence has been found since the 18th birthday of (Collins), I have further determined there is probable cause to believe that (Collins) committed the offense alleged,” Hamilton said.
Collins’ attorney, E. Tay Bond, questioned the reliability of Middleton’s statements, as well as secondhand statements from other witnesses.
Bond also argued that the case should not be transferred to adult court because in 1998, a juvenile had to be at least 14 years old for a capital felony offense case to be transferred. The law was changed in 1999 to lower that age to 10.
Prosecutors said the murder didn’t take place until 2011, well after the law was changed.
Once the trial concludes, Collins could appeal Hamilton’s ruling and any conviction in Middleton’s death.
Prosecutors said they believe their work to transfer a case under these circumstance is a first for Texas.
Collins, who is being held on a $1 million bond, will remain jailed.