The trial of the Brownsville father accused of decapitating his three children in 2003 has taken another setback after the presiding judge decided to remove himself on Monday morning.
During a status hearing in the 138th district court Presiding Judge Arturo Nelson decided to remove himself from the case of John Allen Rubio.
"Judge Nelson doesn't want this to be tried a third time, this the second time it is tried, so he's heading off any potential problems," said Action 4 Legal Analyst John Blaylock.
He told Action 4 News the reason he suspected the judge recused himself was because the District Attorney's office subpoenaed his staff.
"There's no allegations of wrong doing but once you subpoena a court staff, somebody could say something later on like if they don’t like one of the judge’s rulings down the line,” he said. “They can say 'oh you did that because we subpoenaed your court staff, like in retaliation.”
He said he believed Judge Nelson did the right thing.
He also explained what was going to happen next.
"A death penalty is incredibly time consuming, it’s a huge commitment for any judge to take on and so they'll probably ask several other judges, out of county probably," he said.
And while there will likely be a delay, Blaylock doesn't anticipate it will take too long to get the proceeding rolling.
"I would expect by next week or week after, before the end of the year certainly, they'll have another judge assigned to this case and that other judge will most likely already have a final schedule set up," he added.
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