SPLENDORA, Texas, May 14 (UPI) -- A Texas man who allegedly tried to burn his 8-year-old neighbor alive in 1998 may face charges for the attack that led to the victim's death this year.
Thirteen years after the assault with gasoline and fire in the Montgomery County town of Splendora, Robert Middleton died April 29 of cancer associated with his burns.
Lawyers for his Texas family want the case against Don Willburn Collins, 26, reopened in light of his death, the Houston Chronicle reported Saturday.
Collins is currently a jailed sex offender who was never charged with the immolation as prosecutors waited for Middleton to testify.
"We don't want to criticize [prosecutors]. We'd like to see them do this job. I sat looking and talking with Robert before he died. He asked me if I would stick with this," family attorney Craig Sico told the newspaper.
Montgomery County prosecutors dropped charges against the teen in 2000, while they waited for Middleton's condition to improve.
His mother, Colleen Middleton, was never told why charges weren't again filed, though she had agreed to postpone case, the newspaper said
Claims had been made early on that Robert Middleton was attacked because he had witnessed Collins sexually abuse another boy.
But within a year before his death, Robert entered a deposition that Collins had sexually assaulted him prior to the attack.
"I want them to do everything they can by law," Colleen Middleton told the newspaper. "I want [Robert] to be treated fairly. I don't think they did everything they possibly could to get justice for him when he was alive."
