Texas wants convicted child killer John Allen Rubio's petitions denied
Jan. 28—This year marks 20 years since three children — ages 3 and under — were brutally killed at the hands of John Allen Rubio, their caretaker, who continues to fight his 2010 conviction for their murders.
The three children were decapitated in March 2003 in one of the most heinous crimes committed in Brownsville.
Rubio was found guilty of their murders and received the death penalty. He sits on death row at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas. He has yet to be put to death since his case is pending in federal court.
Rubio's case continues to make its way through the legal system and in the latest court filings by the State of Texas, attorneys are requesting that a U.S. District Court federal judge deny Rubio's petition that said his conviction was unconstitutional. In addition, the state is requesting the judge not grant him a certificate of appealability that would allow Rubio to appeal the higher courts ruling, federal court documents reflect.
A jury in 2010 found Rubio guilty in the March 11, 2003, beheading of Julissa Quesada, 3, John E. Rubio, 14 months, and Mary Jane Rubio, 2 months, the three children of his common-law wife Angela Camacho. John Allen Rubio fathered Mary Jane but treated all children as his own.
The bodies of the children were found inside their apartment on Eighth and Tyler Streets, about a block away from where Rubio's first capital murder trial took place. The apartment building has since been torn down and replaced with a community garden.
Rubio admitted to killing his children, saying he thought they were possessed by the spirit of his dead grandmother, court documents reflect. He and Camacho had discussed burying the children's bodies and fleeing to Mexico, authorities said.
His attorneys have filed two petitions in his death penalty case claiming that Rubio's appointed defense in his murder trial did not represent him properly and that his case was handled by a district attorney that was steeped in scandal and misconduct.
The State filed its response Jan. 20, that stated Rubio's failure to demonstrate factual innocence of the crime precludes relief under controlling Fifth Circuit precedent and that the court "deny Rubio's petition for a writ of habeas corpus and all other relief requested therein. Furthermore, because the resolution of Rubio's claims is not debatable among jurists of reason, the Court should deny a certificate of appealability."
In addressing the issue where Rubio alleges that his case was handled by a district attorney that was steeped in scandal and misconduct, the State responded "Rubio fails to cite to any non-indigent defendant Villalobos plea bargained with who asphyxiated, stabbed, and decapitated three young children — and remorselessly confessed to such — who did not receive the death penalty or did not have the death penalty pursued against them."
The State further said Rubio "fails to show how these alleged acts of misconduct were "crucial, critical, highly significant" factors in his conviction and subsequent sentence."
The filing also stated that since Rubio "remorselessly" described as he killed the three child that involved strangling, stabbing, cutting and decapitating them while "at least one of them begged him to stop," he gave no meaningful argument that he was or prejudiced by it.
"Given the overwhelming evidence of his guilt as well as all the aggravating factors, Rubio is unable to show a '"reasonable probability that the verdict might have been different had the trial been properly conducted," the State's response read.
Rubio, 42, a Brownsville native, has been sitting on death row at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas since his initial conviction in November 2003 and his second conviction on the same counts in 2010.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2007 tossed out his initial conviction because statements from his common-law-wife, Angela Camacho, were erroneously allowed into evidence. Rubio was retried in July 2010 and once again found guilty of capital murder.
In Rubio's first petition, filed in September 2020, his attorney filed for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court "declaring unconstitutional and invalid his (Rubio's) conviction for capital murder as well as the resulting death sentence."
Rubio's second amended petition filed in April 2022 said the same.
On Feb. 3, 2021, U.S. District Judge Rolando Olvera Jr., who originally heard the case, granted the temporary stay that allowed Rubio's legal team to present new court documents citing "new evidence has come to light since state habeas review concluded."
Although a second writ of habeas corpus was filed with the Texas of Court of Criminal Appeals on Rubio's behalf, the higher court in January denied his writ. In its ruling the court stated that Rubio failed to satisfy the requirements under Texas law and that his writ was "an abuse of the writ without considering the claims' merits."
In an earlier interview, Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz said, "The Rubio case continues to be a horrific and painful open wound for the community. It screams for finality. As the Court pointed out this is the defendant's second state writ that the Court has denied. We will now continue working towards having the defendant's pending federal writ also be denied. The defendant must be held accountable for what he did: murdered and decapitated three innocent children."
According to a confession Rubio made to police, he admitted to killing the children in 2003 because he believed there was an evil presence in them. He even asked one of the officers first to arrive at the crime scene to place him under arrest, according to the officer's statement.
Camacho, 43, pleaded guilty to murder in 2005 and was sentenced to life prison and remains in custody at the Christina Melton Crain Unit in Gatesville, Texas. She is eligible for parole March 3, 2043.
