At trial, father claims he was told to behead 'evil' children
AP Wire
Issue date: 10/23/03 Section: State News
BROWNSVILLE - A man accused of beheading three children said his common-law wife told him to kill them because they were evil, according to a statement read at his murder trial.
``My daughter started to speak like my grandmother who had passed away. ... She told me that she had taken Julissa's soul,'' John Allen Rubio said in the statement police said he gave a day after the children's bodies were found. ``Julissa started to laugh and was making growls at me. ... My wife told me to kill the children because they were evil.''
Rubio, 23, is accused of murdering and decapitating the children, ages two months to 3 years old, on March 11, with the help of Angela Camacho, a Mexican citizen who is his common-law wife. Two of the children were the couple's; the oldest was Camacho's child.
It has not yet been determined whether Camacho, 23, is mentally competent to stand trial. She remains jailed without bond in Brownsville.
Rubio's brother, Jose Luis Rubio, called police after seeing the headless body of one of the children in the couple's Brownsville apartment. Autopsy reports showed the children were stabbed or suffocated before they were beheaded.
Detective Samuel Lucio testified Tuesday that Rubio willingly confessed to police.
``He wasn't under any intoxicants, he was coherent, he was listening ... he looked like he understood what he was doing,'' Lucio said. ``He said 'I killed the kids.' What else do you need?'''
Rubio's attorneys have entered insanity pleas to all four counts against him _ one murder charge for each of the three children killed and an additional murder charge allowed under state law if two or more people are killed at the same time.
His attorneys declined to make an opening statement to jurors when the trial began Monday.
Prosecutors, in outlining their evidence to jurors, said poverty and depravity led the couple to kill the children.
The couple previously had been referred to the state child protective agency because the children were found to be malnourished and needed medical attention, but the parents weren't accused of physical abuse.
``My daughter started to speak like my grandmother who had passed away. ... She told me that she had taken Julissa's soul,'' John Allen Rubio said in the statement police said he gave a day after the children's bodies were found. ``Julissa started to laugh and was making growls at me. ... My wife told me to kill the children because they were evil.''
Rubio, 23, is accused of murdering and decapitating the children, ages two months to 3 years old, on March 11, with the help of Angela Camacho, a Mexican citizen who is his common-law wife. Two of the children were the couple's; the oldest was Camacho's child.
It has not yet been determined whether Camacho, 23, is mentally competent to stand trial. She remains jailed without bond in Brownsville.
Rubio's brother, Jose Luis Rubio, called police after seeing the headless body of one of the children in the couple's Brownsville apartment. Autopsy reports showed the children were stabbed or suffocated before they were beheaded.
Detective Samuel Lucio testified Tuesday that Rubio willingly confessed to police.
``He wasn't under any intoxicants, he was coherent, he was listening ... he looked like he understood what he was doing,'' Lucio said. ``He said 'I killed the kids.' What else do you need?'''
Rubio's attorneys have entered insanity pleas to all four counts against him _ one murder charge for each of the three children killed and an additional murder charge allowed under state law if two or more people are killed at the same time.
His attorneys declined to make an opening statement to jurors when the trial began Monday.
Prosecutors, in outlining their evidence to jurors, said poverty and depravity led the couple to kill the children.
The couple previously had been referred to the state child protective agency because the children were found to be malnourished and needed medical attention, but the parents weren't accused of physical abuse.