A Texas man who stabbed and decapitated his three children, claiming they were “possessed by evil spirits,” is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday.
John Allen Rubio was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in November 2003. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned that conviction in 2007, but Rubio was found guilty again and sentenced to death during a 2010 retrial.
In October 2026, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Rubio’s request to halt the execution, scheduling it for November 12 at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Huntsville Unit.
Angela Camacho, the children’s mother and Rubio’s girlfriend at the time, is serving three life sentences for helping him carry out the murders.
Camacho and Rubio had three children: Julissa Quesada, 3; John Esteban Rubio, 1; and Mary Jane Rubio, who was just two months old.
Mary Jane was Rubio’s only biological child. The other two were Camacho’s children from a previous relationship, although court filings said Rubio raised them as his own.
According to court documents, Rubio and Camacho began dating in 2001 after Camacho left Julissa’s abusive father.
The couple initially lived with Rubio’s mother and brothers in an apartment in Brownsville, Texas. That arrangement eventually ended, and they became homeless while Camacho was pregnant with John, who was born in January 2002.
John Allen Rubio was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in November 2003. His conviction was overturned in 2007, but he was convicted and sentenced to death again in 2010. Following a lengthy legal battle, his execution was scheduled for November 12.
Rubio’s attorneys filed multiple motions seeking to stop his execution, arguing that he was legally insane when the crimes occurred.
John Allen Rubio killed the three children he shared with Angela Camacho after both reportedly believed the children were “possessed by evil spirits.”
The couple later moved into a house without electricity or running water. Around that time, Rubio asked Camacho what she would do if he killed the children. She dismissed the question because, according to court filings, “she thought that he was joking.”
Child Protective Services took John and Julissa into custody while Camacho was still pregnant with Mary Jane, court documents stated.
The couple was required to complete parenting classes and move into a more suitable home before they could regain custody of the children.
Rubio struggled to maintain steady employment. He washed cars and prostituted himself to earn money.
He also had a male partner, Jose Luis Moreno. Camacho knew about the relationship but did not intervene because Moreno sometimes supplied the family with money and groceries.
On the day of the killings, Rubio told Camacho that he believed the children were possessed by evil spirits, including the spirit of his deceased grandmother.
With Camacho’s help, Rubio stabbed and decapitated the two toddlers. The couple then had sex and made a “pact,” during which Rubio cut each of their wrists to draw blood.
Rubio then told Camacho that John was also possessed and had to die. Camacho said “no” and picked up the child, but Rubio took John from her, carried him into the kitchen, and stabbed and decapitated him.
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Rubio was photographed being escorted from the courtroom by Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputies on July 29, 2010.
Rubio was convicted of capital murder for a second time during his 2010 retrial and again received a death sentence.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Rubio’s motion to stop his execution and scheduled it for November 12 at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Huntsville Unit.
Camacho also asked Rubio to kill her. He tried to choke her but was unable to do so, according to court records.
Afterward, the couple went to a store to buy milk and discussed going to prison.
Rubio told Camacho they should call the police because, court filings stated, “everybody makes mistakes and we are not all perfect.”
Police were called after Camacho’s friend and Rubio’s brother, Jose Luis Lopez, visited the home and discovered the children’s bodies.
Family members and friends testified that Rubio had experienced hallucinations and delusions throughout his life.
Members of his immediate family said Rubio told them he heard voices and saw things. They also testified that he claimed God and his deceased grandmother had told him he was “the chosen one” and wanted him to finish what she had started.
Rubio and his attorneys made several attempts to establish an insanity defense, but testimony from mental health experts and family members was conflicting.
Moreno, Rubio’s partner at the time, testified that Rubio had told him a person could escape a murder conviction by claiming to be insane.
One of Rubio’s prison cellmates said he overheard Rubio state that he planned to “fake mental retardation and raise an insanity defense,” according to court documents.
Several mental health experts who examined Rubio’s history and videotaped confessions said he displayed characteristics associated with paranoid schizophrenia. However, they noted that the unpredictable nature of the illness made a definitive diagnosis difficult.
For an insanity defense to succeed, the evidence would have to show that Rubio did not understand that his actions were morally wrong or illegal when he committed the murders.
Although Rubio’s claims about evil spirits suggested possible insanity, his conversations with Camacho after the killings indicated that he understood they could be punished. He told her they needed to go to prison, demonstrating that he knew his actions were at least legally wrong.
During an October 2026 court hearing, the children’s aunt stood and shouted at Rubio in the courtroom, Valley Central reported.
“You killed my nephew, you [expletive] my family is going to be there to [expletive] see you die! You’re going to meet your father the devil that day,” the woman shouted.
Speaking with Valley Central outside the courthouse, the woman, who identified herself only as the children’s aunt, said: “Who knows, Julissa could’ve been a nurse, [John] could’ve been a doctor and Mary Jane a police officer—and he took that away from them.
“We have to remember how he killed them. We have to remember how brutally he killed them.”