Texas executed John Allen Rubio for stabbing and beheading three young children in Brownsville in 2003, a crime he told investigators he committed because he believed the children were possessed by demons.
Story Highlights
- Rubio, 46, was put to death by lethal injection in Huntsville and pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m.
- The victims were 3-year-old Julissa, 14-month-old John Esteban and 2-month-old Mary Jane, children he helped raise.
- A jury rejected his insanity defense in 2010 and sentenced him to death.
- In his final words, Rubio apologized to his wife’s family and said, “I can’t change the past.”
Texas Carries Out The Sentence
On Thursday, November 12, Texas executed John Allen Rubio at the state prison in Huntsville. He received a lethal injection of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative Texas uses for executions, and was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m., according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. A doctor declared him dead 21 minutes after the injection began. He was the eighth person executed in Texas in 2026.
Rubio was sentenced to death for the 2003 killings of three young children in a small, windowless apartment in Brownsville, on the U.S.-Mexico border. After his arrest, he told investigators he believed the children were possessed by demons. At times he also claimed he was the “chosen one” meant to save the world. The apartment building was later torn down, and the land became a park and community garden.
His Final Words
A spiritual adviser prayed over Rubio briefly before the injection. In his final statement, Rubio thanked his friends and family for their “love and understanding” and said he was “not the same person I once was.” He thanked prison staff for helping him find God and said he still loved his common-law wife, Angela Camacho.
“I want to say I’m sorry to my wife’s family,” Rubio said. He added, “I can’t change the past,” and said he would be with his children soon. After the drug began, he took three breaths and appeared to snore before all movement stopped.
Two Trials And A Rejected Insanity Defense
Rubio and Camacho were both accused in the killings. Camacho pleaded guilty and is serving life in prison. Rubio was first convicted in 2003, but in 2007 the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, threw out that verdict. It ruled that statements Camacho made should not have been used against him at trial.
At his second trial in 2010, Rubio pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. That defense claims a person was so mentally ill he did not know what he was doing was wrong. Defense experts said he had paranoid schizophrenia, a serious mental illness that can cause false beliefs and hallucinations. Prosecution experts disagreed. The jury found him guilty on four counts of capital murder, the most serious murder charge in Texas, after about four and a half hours, and sentenced him to death.
How The Appeals Ended
A federal judge in Brownsville turned down Rubio’s challenge to his conviction in 2024, writing that “Rubio has not shown an entitlement to the relief he requests.” A federal appeals court then refused to let him appeal that ruling.
In his last weeks, Rubio’s lawyers argued that a prosecution psychiatric expert gave false testimony about his mental health history. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied that appeal on Thursday, November 5. A state judge also found him legally competent to be executed, meaning he understood the punishment and why he faced it. On Tuesday, November 10, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously against a 90-day delay and against reducing his sentence. His lawyers filed no last-minute appeals in federal court, according to reports.
Texas has one more execution set for 2026. Reinaldo Dennes is scheduled to die on Thursday, November 19, for a deadly 1997 robbery in Houston.
Sources:
whsv.com, texastribune.org, krgv.com, law.justia.com, www-dev.ca5.uscourts.gov
