The jury room inside the Cameron County Courthouse filled up Wednesday morning with over 200 potential jurors for John Allen Rubio's competency hearing.
"We are not here for a trial, we’re not here for the killing for the children,” Action 4 News Legal Analyst John Blaylock said. “What we’re here for is a competency hearing to see if John Allen Rubio is competent to stand trial."
Blaylock added that the focus of the hearing is to determine if Rubio is competent to stand trial: meaning he mentally understands the implications of his actions.
"Each side will bring experts of course, mental health experts and one side will likely say, he's not competent to stand trial and the other is he is competent to stand trial," he said.
The 12-member jury will be shown the evidence, and if he is found to be competent, the trial to decide if he is innocent or guilty of capital murder charges will begin.
But if he is found to be incompetent, there will not be a capital murder trial against Rubio, at least not yet.
"He'll be committed to a state hospital for a period of time until some health expert determines he's mentally competent," Blaylock said.
The competency hearing will begin Thursday morning and is expected to last some about a week.
Rubio is accused of beheading his three children back in March of 2003.
Most recently, the presiding judge over the case, Arturo Nelson, recused himself. In his place, Hidalgo County Judge Noe Gonzalez was brought in.
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