Texas man executed for beheading kids, as Oklahoma's Pavatt put to death - Newsweek
Texas executed a Brownsville man Thursday for beheading three young children in 2003, hours after Oklahoma put a man to death for a 2001 murder-for-hire killing of his lover's estranged husband, the second time this year the two states have carried out executions on the same day.
The executions are the latest to follow Tennessee’s failed lethal-injection attempt on Christa Pike September 30, when she survived two doses of pentobarbital. Governor Bill Lee then paused executions in the state and ordered an outside review.
Since Tennessee's failure, at least eight people have now been put to death nationwide. Together, Texas and Oklahoma have carried out 12 executions this year, still well behind Florida, which has killed 19, tying the state record it set last year.
John Allen Rubio, 46, was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. after a lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville.
He was convicted of the 2003 stabbing and beheading of 3-year-old Julissa Quesada, 14-month-old John E. Rubio and 2-month-old Mary Jane Rubio inside the apartment he shared with his girlfriend, Angela Camacho.
Camacho pleaded guilty to three counts of capital murder to avoid the death penalty in 2005 and is serving three life sentences.
Investigators say Rubio and Camacho killed the children because they couldn’t support them. Rubio previously said the children were decapitated because he believed they were possessed by his dead grandmother.
Rubio was originally convicted and sentenced to death in 2003, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction in 2007. He was retried in 2010, found guilty a second time of capital murder and again sentenced to death.
Last month, a state district judge found Rubio legally competent to face execution after reviewing psychiatric evaluation findings. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals recently rejected a motion by Rubio’s defense attorneys requesting a stay of execution.
Rubio also raised issues with the state’s use of pentobarbital, suing the state in August alongside another death-row inmate, LeJames Norman—who has since been executed. The defense lawyers for the Brownsville man tried to claim his delusions made him incompetent for the death penalty.
His horrific killings rattled the community in 2003. A Brownsville police detective who responded to the case recounted the gruesome experience of discovering the tiny, headless bodies in black trash bags in the couple's filthy apartment, according to a local TV station. The apartment building was later demolished and the land turned into a park and community garden.
Rubio sat for a jailhouse interview with KPFT 90.1FM Houston on October 14. He repeatedly professed his faith, saying, "we are all sinners."
"Many people see me, and I'm stained by the crime. They don't even look beyond that. They just want to condemn," Rubio said. "I have peace in my heart. ... There is no sin too great that God cannot forgive, and there is no sinner that God does not love, right?"
Rubio said he was looking forward to being reunited with his children.
"I miss them so much. But one of the things that was tormenting me so much was that these hands that caressed them, that kissed them, that would hug them and change their diaper, that showed them love. These same hands took their lives, and that was so much of a torment for me."
That's when he said he found Jesus, nearly 20 years ago. Rubio said that when he sees his children, he's going to tell them he is sorry. "I adored my children. I was seeing such crazy things that I thought it was the end of the world."
James Pavatt, 73, was put to death by lethal injection at 10:12 a.m. in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester for the 2001 murder of Rob Andrew, a 39-year-old advertising executive who was gunned down in his garage while picking up his two young children just before Thanksgiving.
Andrew was the estranged husband of Pavatt's lover.
Pavatt, who denied guilt, fled to Mexico after the death with Andrew's wife, Brenda Andrew, 62.
Prison officials described the execution as “uneventful,” adding that Pavatt had no last words, according to local news station KOKH. For his last meal, Pavatt requested a strawberry milkshake and barbecue dinner of smoked chicken, brisket, pulled pork, fried okra, baked beans and pickles, KOCO reported.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Edward T. Cummins
