HOUSTON – The family of a boy who was molested and then set on fire was awarded $150 billion Tuesday -- one of the largest jury verdicts in a personal injury case in U.S. history.
Robbie Middleton was set on fire in 1998 in Montgomery County, two weeks after he was molested.
Middleton later revealed a neighbor's 13-year-old boy, Don Wilburn Collins, was responsible for sexually assaulting him when he was 8 years old and then set him on fire.
Middleton suffered catastrophic burn wounds to 95 percent of his body. He died from skin cancer in April at 20 years old.
No criminal charges have ever been brought against Collins, who is up for parole in September for an aggravated sexual assault of another 8-year-old boy and for failing to register as a sex offender.
The family does not expect to collect any of the award.
The family said the purpose of the lawsuit was not for monetary gains, but to focus attention on Montgomery County's failure to prosecute the crime. They want to prevent Collins from hurting any more children, they said.
"The person responsible should not just get away with what they did to Robert," said Colleen Middleton, Robbie's mother.
Colleen Middleton said the ruling will not bring her son back, but it solidifies the legal battle she's been fighting for more than a decade.
"For the first time in all this time we're so hopeful and trying to allow ourselves to get excited, that just maybe there will be a criminal case," Colleen Middleton said.
Fayette County jurors awarded $150 billion in punitive damages and $370 million in actual damages to Middleton's family after finding Collins responsible for the attack.