John Allen Rubio is lead from the courtroom by Hidalgo County Sheriffs Deputies after receiving the death penalty, Thursday, July 29, 2010 in the 370th State District Court at the Hidalgo County Courthouse in Edinburg Texas. (Joel Martinez/AP)
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A judge found a South Texas man convicted of beheading his three children competent to be executed Wednesday. The ruling must be reviewed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals before his scheduled Nov. 12 execution can proceed.
John Allen Rubio, 46, appeared in a Brownsville courtroom after his attorneys argued he was incompetent to understand that he is scheduled to be executed.
Rubio was convicted of four counts of capital murder in connection with the deaths of his children: Julissa Angela Quezada, 3; John Esteban Rubio, 1; and Mary Jane Rubio, 2 months old.
Rubio and his common-law wife, Angela Camacho, stabbed and beheaded their three children on March 11, 2003.
Camacho was sentenced to three life terms for the murders.
In April, Rubio’s attorneys asked that he be evaluated to determine whether he understood his scheduled execution, Valley Central reported.
After reviewing the experts’ findings, the judge said Rubio understood what he had done and that he was being executed for killing his three children.
During Rubio’s trial, his attorneys argued that he had a form of paranoid schizophrenia that led him to believe his children were possessed by demons.
He believed one child had been taken over by his mother, who practiced witchcraft.
A Texas appeals court overturned Rubio’s 2003 conviction and death sentence in 2007, finding that prosecutors had improperly introduced statements Camacho made as evidence.
At a 2010 retrial, a new jury convicted Rubio again on the same charges and sentenced him to death.
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