John Allen Rubio, a 46-year-old man from Brownsville, Texas, was executed Thursday evening, nearly 23 years after he was convicted of killing three young children he had helped raise.
Rubio received a lethal injection at a prison in Huntsville. He was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m., 21 minutes after the procedure began. The execution, scheduled for 6 p.m., proceeded without incident.
Rubio was convicted of stabbing and beheading Julissa Quezada, 3, John Esteban Rubio, 1, and Mary Jane Rubio, who was 2 months old. He was tried alongside his common-law wife, Angela Camacho.
In his final statement, Rubio thanked friends and family for their love and understanding. He said he was no longer the person he had once been and expressed love for his wife.
“I want to say I’m sorry to my wife’s family,” he said. “I can’t change the past but I can tell you my life is going to be over. But that’s not going to make you happy.”
“I’m going to be with my kids in a little bit,” he added. “I’m ready to go to heaven to be with my lord and savior.”
The case began with the children’s deaths on March 11, 2003, inside a windowless apartment. Court records said Rubio was not the biological father of the two older children, though he had taken on a parental role in their lives.
Before the killings, Rubio reportedly said the children were possessed and described himself as the “chosen one,” destined to save the world.
During the trials, Rubio pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity at one point. Defense experts diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia, while experts for the prosecution challenged that conclusion.
His defense team also described a troubled childhood marked by violence, drug use, prostitution and parents they characterized as toxic, arguing these experiences had hindered his development.
Camacho pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence for her role in the children’s deaths. The apartment building where the killings took place has since been demolished, and the site is now a community park and garden.
Rubio was the second person executed in the United States on Thursday. Earlier in the day, 73-year-old James Pavatt was put to death by lethal injection in Oklahoma. He had been convicted of plotting and carrying out the 2001 killing of his partner’s estranged husband.
