Texas is set to execute John Allen Rubio on Nov. 12 after appeals over his mental state were rejected. The case centers on a capital-murder conviction that ended with two juries and multiple psychiatric disputes over whether he understood his conduct.
John Allen Rubio and Nov. 12
Rubio was convicted of capital murder in 2003 and again at a retrial in 2010. His attorneys offered an insanity defense in both cases, and the state later set his execution date for Nov. 12.
The case also involves Angela Camacho, Rubio’s wife. Early on the morning of the killings, Rubio passed an egg over his daughter Julissa, cracked it into a glass of water, and said she had been attacked by evil spirits. He also told Camacho, “I was one of seven good men on Earth engaged in a struggle with an equal number of bad men.”
Texas trial record
That same morning, Rubio nailed the back door of the family’s apartment shut and threw a blanket over the bedroom mirror. He told Camacho that their three children had been possessed by the spirit of his dead grandmother, whom he believed to be a witch, before Rubio and Camacho cut off the children’s heads and placed the bodies in a plastic bag.
Rubio and Camacho surrendered to police hours later after Rubio’s brother and a friend found the bodies and notified law enforcement. Rubio was ruled competent to stand trial in 2003, and prosecutors argued during sentencing that the defense had not made the necessary argument for insanity under Texas law.
Rubio appeal and schizophrenia
Two psychiatrists testified that Rubio was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the murders and did not know his actions were wrong. Texas law required a jury to find that he was unaware his actions were illegal rather than immoral in order to prove insanity, and the prosecution presented its own psychiatrist who disputed that Rubio had schizophrenia or any other brain disease.
The jury sided with the prosecution. In a 2024 appeal, Rubio argued that his trial attorneys failed to investigate fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and the hearing included attorneys admitting that they had provided an ineffective defense.
The judge said Rubio might have received life without parole if that option had been available to the jury at the time of his trial, but ultimately rejected the appeal. His current attorneys sought federal court action after that ruling, and the execution date now places the case on a final track toward Nov. 12.
