John Allen Rubio, 46, was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. after a lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, for the 2003 murders of his three young children. Rubio had spent over two decades on death row after being convicted of beheading the children, whom he believed were "possessed by evil spirits."
Murders in Brownsville apartment
Rubio and his girlfriend, Angela Camacho, were accused in the murders of three-year-old Julissa Quesada, 14-month-old John E. Rubio and two-month-old Mary Jane Rubio in their squalid, windowless apartment in Brownsville, on Texas' border with Mexico. All three children were decapitated by Rubio, with Camacho helping to hold down one child.
Camacho pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence, while Rubio was placed on death row. Rubio's first capital murder conviction was overturned by an appeals court, which ruled that statements by Camacho were wrongly allowed as evidence in his trial. Rubio again pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity for his second trial but was once again convicted and sentenced to death.
Claims of possession and mental illness
According to court records, Rubio was not the biological father of the two older children but treated them as if they were his own. At various points, Rubio claimed the children were possessed and that he was the "chosen one" intended to save the world. Defense experts diagnosed Rubio as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, a determination rejected by prosecution experts.
Rubio first attacked his only biological child, Mary Jane, and decapitated her. He then got Camacho to hold down Julissa while he decapitated her, according to court records and the couple's own admissions. He then decapitated John when the baby woke up crying, court records say.
Rubio, who was known to sniff paint, later told police that he was "the chosen one" and that he had been selected "to help the world" and "help give their life to Jesus," according to reports at the time. Defense experts testified that his childhood, filled with violence at home, "toxic" parents, drug use and prostitution, damaged him developmentally.
Aftermath and recent executions
The apartment building where the children were killed was later demolished, and the land was turned into a park and a community garden. Rubio's execution is the second to take place that day, with murderer James Dwight Pavatt also executed earlier for helping his lover kill her estranged husband. When Pavatt was asked if he had any last words before his execution, he shook his head no.
The execution comes just weeks after the botched lethal injection of Christa Pike, which the killer survived. The 50-year-old death row inmate was left in critical condition after being injected with two separate doses of pentobarbital, with state officials jabbing her at least seven times with needles, leaving her with severe arm damage and potential permanent brain injuries. The US is on track to surpass 40 executions for a second consecutive year, a pace driven by Florida as the death penalty comes under renewed attention.
