HUNTSVILLE, Texas (TCN) — A 46-year-old man convicted in the 2003 beheading deaths of three children — including one of his own — has been executed.
According to The Associated Press, John Allen Rubio and his partner at the time, Angela Camacho, killed three children — 3-year-old Julissa Quesada, 14-month-old John E. Rubio, and 2-month-old Mary Jane Rubio — at their apartment in Brownsville, Texas, in 2003. According to court records, John Allen Rubio was not the biological father of the two older children.
During the murders, which Rubio claimed to have committed because he thought the children were possessed, he and Camacho reportedly had sex, the AP reported. The couple was in the middle of cleaning up the scene when relatives came by the house. When police arrived, Rubio reportedly held out his wrists to be handcuffed and said “arrest me.”
Camacho was sentenced to life in prison for her role in the killings, per the AP. Rubio was convicted in 2003, but an appeals court overturned his conviction in 2007 due to some of Camacho’s statements wrongfully being used as evidence at trial. Rubio was sentenced to death in 2010 after pleading not guilty by reason of insanity, which the jury rejected, according to the AP.
In April, Rubio’s defense team filed a motion asking for additional evaluations to be conducted to determine if he had the capacity to understand he was facing execution. On Oct. 7, after being evaluated by two separate experts, Judge Noe Gonzales determined he was competent to be executed.
The AP reports Rubio was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. on Nov. 12, 21 minutes after receiving a lethal injection. His spiritual adviser was present and he expressed his love for Camacho and said he was not the man he once was.
