Texas Is Scheduled to Execute John Allen Rubio on Thursday Evening for the 2003 Brownsville Murders of Three Children
Rubio, 46, is set to die by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit for the 2003 killings of Julissa Quesada, 3, John Stephan Rubio, 1, and Mary Jane Rubio, 2 months. Courts rejected his insanity plea and, last month, found him competent to be executed; his final appeal was dismissed Nov. 6. No outcome is claimed in this file.
HUNTSVILLE — Texas is scheduled to execute John Allen Rubio, 46, by lethal injection on Thursday evening at the Huntsville Unit, more than two decades after the 2003 murders of three young children in Brownsville. Rubio was convicted of killing Julissa Quesada, 3, John Stephan Rubio, 1, and Mary Jane Rubio, 2 months — the children of his common-law wife, Angela Camacho; Mary Jane was Rubio's only biological child.
The killings, on March 11, 2003, shocked the Texas border city. According to court records and the couple's own admissions, Rubio told Camacho that her children were possessed and attacked them one by one. A jury rejected Rubio's plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and sentenced him to death. Camacho was sentenced to life in prison.
The case's legal road ran for 23 years, including a reversal and retrial, and its final steps came this fall: a judge ruled last month, after a hearing, that Rubio is competent to be executed, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed his latest appeal on November 6. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously declined to recommend clemency, according to reports of its November 10 vote.
Texas carries out lethal injections with pentobarbital. Oklahoma is scheduled to execute James Dwight Pavatt, 72, on Thursday in an unrelated 2001 murder case; if both executions move forward, they would be the 36th and 37th in the United States this year, USA TODAY reported. This story reports the schedule only — the desk will report Thursday evening's outcome when, and only when, state officials or wire reporting confirm it.
