Executed after 23 years — for killing three children. ⏳
📅 14 November 2026
John Allen Rubio, 46, was executed by lethal injection on Thursday evening, 12 November, at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville — nearly 23 years after he and his common-law wife killed three young children in a windowless apartment in Brownsville. He was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m.
The victims were three-year-old Julissa Quesada, 14-month-old John Esteban Rubio and two-month-old Mary Jane Rubio, killed on 11 March 2003. Prosecutors said the children were stabbed and beheaded; Rubio believed they were possessed by evil spirits. His common-law wife, Maria Angela Camacho, pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence.
Rubio was twice convicted of capital murder and twice sentenced to death — an appeals court overturned his first conviction over improperly admitted statements, and a second jury convicted him again. His reported final words: he was “going to be with my kids.”
It was the second execution in the United States that day — Oklahoma executed James Pavatt, 73, hours earlier for the 2001 murder of Rob Andrew. Together they were the 36th and 37th executions in the US this year, with the country on track to pass 40 for a second straight year.
23 years between the crime and the execution — justice served, or justice delayed? 👇