Victim in Florida Teen Burning Takes the Stand

Michael Brewer, who was nearly burned to death by his middle-school classmates in 2009, took the stand Thursday against the teen accused of planning the attack.

On the afternoon of Oct. 12, 2009, Bent and two other teens, all 15 at the time, confronted Brewer near an apartment complex in Deerfield Beach, Fla. One boy doused Brewer with rubbing alcohol they found in a container on the street, then another set him ablaze with a lighter.

"I felt like I was going to die," Brewer testified Thursday afternoon, NBC 6 Miami reported.

More than two and a half years after the fire covered 65 percent of Brewer's body with second- and third-degree burns, he confronted the alleged ringleader of the attack, 17-year-old Matthew Bent, in a trial that has captured national attention. Charged with attempted second-degree murder and facing 30 years in prison if convicted, Bent was angry at him, Brewer said, because he refused to buy drug paraphernalia from Bent.

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