It took jurors 4 hours to sentence John Allen Rubio to death.
For the first time in 7 years, the convicted child murderer spoke out loud in court after Judge Noe Gonzalez asked if he had anything to say.
Rubio spoke softly saying, “I’m sorry it all had to come to this.” Judge Gonzalez asked if that was all and Rubio continued with, “I thank the jury for letting me show all that I could.”
Jurors were visibly moved when the judge told Rubio he understood he'd endured a hard life, but had never seen such a horrible crime in his court.
In closing arguments, defense attorneys had Rubio stand up in court and face the jury.
Nat Perez said, “he’s one of the valley’s children.” “On the day he could be sentenced to death, no one is here for him.
Look out into the court, no one is here. Not his mother, his brother.”
Rubio cried as he stood there looking at the jurors, but quickly sat back down and put his head down.
Prosecutors told the jury not to show him any mercy since he didn’t show Julissa, Mary Jane, or John Estefan any when he held them down and “hacked off their heads”.
After the 12 jurors, 8 of which were women, sentenced Rubio to death, he was handcuffed and walked out of the courtroom. Several female jurors wept and some of the male jurors were holding back tears.
Rubio’s attorney Ed Stapleton told Action 4 News after the trial that if was a pleasure defending Rubio, a man he said thinks about the kids he killed everyday and asked for copies of the pictures of them alive that were shown during the trial.
Stapleton said Rubio has a picture of their tombstones at the cemetery in his jail cell and does feel remorse for the murders, something the jury saw none of during the trial.
In speaking to jurors, Stapleton said some expressed that they would have afforded Rubio a life sentence if it didn’t come with the possibility of parole.
By law, he would have been eligible for parole in 40 plus years.
The Cameron County DA’s office is relieved it’s over and that the children finally can be at peace and say the county can move on now since the expense of the trial has tied them up.
Chief Assistant DA Chuck Mattingly said with a smile when asked whether Rubio’s demeanor in the courtroom could have changed the outcome of the decision, “There’s a special place in hell for John Allen Rubio.”
According to the DA's office, the John Allen Rubio trial cost Cameron County roughly 1 million dollars.
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the cost of the drugs that will be used in the lethal injection to execute him, $86.
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