John Allen Rubio, convicted of the 2003 stabbing and beheading of three young children in Brownsville, was executed by lethal injection Thursday evening at the Huntsville Unit. He was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. Central Time, according to local reporting confirmed by Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz.
Rubio, 46, had been sentenced to death for the March 11, 2003, killings of Julissa Quesada (also spelled Quezada), 3; John Esteban Rubio, approximately 14 months; and Mary Jane Rubio, 2 months. Only Mary Jane was his biological child. The children were killed in a Brownsville apartment by Rubio and his common-law wife, Angela Camacho. Rubio told authorities he believed the children were possessed by demons or evil spirits. Camacho is serving three consecutive life sentences for her role in the crimes.
A jury first convicted Rubio and sentenced him to death in 2003. That conviction was overturned in 2007 after an appeals court ruled that statements from Camacho had been improperly admitted. He was retried in 2010, convicted again of capital murder, and again sentenced to death.
In October 2026, Cameron County District Judge Noe Gonzalez found Rubio competent to be executed after reviewing psychiatric evaluations, determining he understood the nature of the proceedings and the reason for his sentence. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals subsequently denied a request to stay the execution. On November 10, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously rejected clemency. No last-minute stay or reprieve halted the process.
The execution was the eighth carried out in Texas in 2026. Outside the Huntsville Unit, some opponents of the death penalty gathered, while a candlelight vigil was planned in Brownsville at Tres Angeles Park, the site of the former apartment complex where the murders occurred. The building has since been demolished.
Officials reported the execution proceeded without incident. As of the latest available reports, a detailed account of any final statement had not yet been publicly released.
