Texas Man Who Brutally Beheaded Three Young Children — Including a 2-Month-Old Baby — Executed Nearly 23 Years Later

Nearly 23 years after the gruesome murders of three defenseless children, Texas carried out the death sentence against John Allen Rubio, the convicted child killer who stabbed and beheaded an infant and two toddlers inside a Brownsville apartment.

Rubio, 46, was executed by lethal injection Thursday, November 12, at the Huntsville Unit in Texas. He was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. Central Time, just 21 minutes after the lethal injection began.

The horrific crime occurred on March 11, 2003, inside a cramped, windowless apartment in Brownsville, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Rubio and his common-law wife, Angela Camacho, were responsible for the deaths of three young children:

• Julissa Quezada, 3 years old

• John Esteban Rubio, 14 months old

• Mary Jane Rubio, just 2 months old

According to court records, the children were stabbed and decapitated.

Rubio was the biological father of the youngest child and had been raising the two older children as his own.

Investigators learned that Rubio believed the children were possessed by evil spirits. He reportedly claimed that he had been chosen to save the world.

The brutality of the murders stunned the Brownsville community. The apartment building where the killings occurred was eventually demolished, and the property was transformed into a park and community garden.

In his final moments, Rubio expressed remorse and thanked his family and prison staff.

He also apologized to his wife’s family, telling them that he could not undo what had happened.

Rubio then made a particularly disturbing statement about the children he had murdered.

“I’m going to be with my kids in a little bit,” Rubio said.

He also expressed his belief that he would be reunited with them in heaven.

Rubio said he had changed during his decades behind bars and credited prison staff with helping him rediscover his religious faith.

After a spiritual adviser prayed over him, the lethal injection was administered. Rubio was pronounced dead shortly afterward.

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Rubio was first convicted of capital murder in 2003 and sentenced to death.

However, in 2007, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his conviction after determining that prosecutors improperly introduced statements from Camacho during his trial.

The ruling gave Rubio another opportunity to fight his death sentence.

In 2010, a second jury found him guilty and once again sentenced him to death.

Throughout the proceedings, Rubio’s attorneys argued that he suffered from serious mental illness and should not be held criminally responsible.

Defense experts diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia. Prosecutors challenged those findings, and jurors rejected his insanity defense.

His attorneys continued challenging the conviction and execution, including allegations that a prosecution psychiatric expert had provided misleading testimony.

On November 5, 2026, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected his latest legal challenge, clearing the way for Thursday’s execution.

The execution also sparked comparisons on social media to the high-profile case of Lindsey Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children in January 2023.

One social media user pointed to a glaring double standard in how the justice system treats fathers and mothers accused of murdering their children.

The user wrote:

“When a dad murders his 3 kids, he get the death penalty. When a mother murders 3 kids, she gets a million plus dollars for defense, cult like followers, 11 jurors trying to let her get away with murder. Messed world we live in.”

Clancy’s defense has argued that mental illness and medication-related factors contributed to the tragedy. Rubio’s attorneys similarly raised mental illness as part of his defense, but jurors ultimately rejected his insanity plea.