Texas Man, John Rubio, Sentenced To Death After Beheading 3 Children
A jury sentenced a south Texas man to death on Thursday, four days after convicting him of capital murder for beheading his common law wife’s three children in 2003.
It was the second time John Allen Rubio has been sentenced to death for the slayings. He was convicted of killing the children all under the age of four — smothering, stabbing and ultimately decapitating them — in a windowless Brownsville apartment.
Before entering the sentence, Hidalgo County District Judge Noe Gonzalez asked Rubio if there was anything he would like to say.
“I’m sorry it all had to come to this,” Rubio said quietly. “I thank the jury for giving me a chance to show what I could.”
Gonzalez, who said he had sentenced more people to death than any judge in south Texas, said he recognized that a lot of people went through what Rubio did, citing his abusive and troubled childhood.
“I don’t know what happened, but I know what this jury found,” Gonzalez said. “I have never seen a crime like this.” Jurors deliberated for about four hours.
Jurors on Monday found Rubio guilty on four counts of capital murder — one charge for each child and one for the children together.
Rubio was previously convicted of the murders in 2003 and sentenced to death. But a state appeals court overturned his conviction in 2007 because statements from the children’s mother, Angela Camacho, were wrongly allowed as evidence during the trial. Camacho pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence for her role in the slayings.
At his current trial, Rubio pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but the jury rejected that defense.
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