July 15, 2010 11:08 PM
Ildefonso Ortiz
The Brownsville Herald
EDINBURG — Jurors were brought to tears Thursday as Angela Camacho testified in the trial of John Allen Rubio, the Brownsville man accused of capital murder in the deaths of her three children.
Camacho has already pleaded guilty to the killings and is serving a life sentence. Rubio, her common-law husband, is being retried. An appeals court reversed his previous conviction in the case, citing the prosecution’s use of videotaped testimony from Camacho that did not allow for cross-examination. He had been sentenced to death.
Camacho told jurors Thursday that she assisted in one of the murders and that she and Rubio then took a break to have sex before the last slaying. During cross-examination, defense attorneys tried to point out inconsistencies in her testimony with that of previous statements given to police and investigators.
She herself became tearful when Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos showed her photographs of her children — Julissa Quesada, John E. Rubio and Mary Jane Rubio — during happier times. The children in the images are smiling and wearing colorful garments.
“My babies,” the distraught mother exclaimed. “That’s my baby.”
Rubio, 29, is the biological father of the youngest child, Mary Jane. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Camacho testified that on the day of the murders, March 11, 2003, Rubio told her that 2-month-old Mary Jane was “possessed” and ordered Camacho to go into the bathroom of their Brownsville apartment.
“He said they were possessed,” she said. “I believed him.”
Camacho said she came out when Rubio called her and ordered her to hold down the thrashing legs of Julissa, 3, while he severed her head.
“The (girl’s) body was on the carpet. … The head was on the carpet,” Camacho said. “I started crying and crying. … He was trying to cut (off) her head.”
Camacho testified that after the girls were killed, she cleaned the knives with pieces of clothing while Rubio washed the bodies and placed them in trash bags.
“I didn’t want to believe they were dead — they’re my babies,” Camacho said. “He told me to have sex with him.”
Camacho told jurors that Rubio actually threatened her into having sex.
“He told me that he would call his friends to come rape me and then he would kill himself,” she said.
According to Camacho, after having sex and showering, Rubio beheaded 14-month-old John E. Rubio and placed his head in a bag.
She testified that she and Rubio then went to a nearby supermarket to buy milk.
Sometime after the murders, the two talked about burying the children's corpses in a cemetery or at the house where Rubio grew up, she said. The woman added that she and Rubio discussed fleeing to Mexico to evade authorities.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Nat Perez used previous statements by Camacho in an attempt to reveal inconsistencies. According to a report Perez read, Camacho told investigators that she held down both girls while Rubio first choked and then beheaded them and that the boy was killed before the two had sex.
Camacho told Perez that she was now telling the truth and that in previous statements she either didn't remember or was mistaken. Perez also produced a statement Camacho gave police in which she claimed the children were not possessed and that they actually were killed due to financial problems.
“No, that’s wrong,” Camacho said Thursday. “I don't remember saying that. … Today is the truth.”
Camacho testified that she changed her story about the murders only because a detective had told her that Rubio had changed his story.
“He lied to me,” she said of her spouse. “I just wanted my story to fit with (his).”
During further testimony, Camacho said Rubio would often huff paint or abuse other substances.
“He would act stupid,” she said. “He would talk to himself. He would talk to God. He would read the Bible. He would also talk to cartoons.”
Villalobos, the prosecutor, asked Camacho if she had corresponded with Rubio after the murders. She answered that she had both written and received some letters. When questioned about a particular letter, she said, “He told me to act insane so I could get out and go to a hospital or something.”
During questioning by the defense attorney, Camacho said she had received that letter after she had been sentenced to prison but that she had thrown it away and had no evidence of it.
Before Camacho's testimony, jurors also heard from Jose Luis Moreno, who described himself as Rubio's boyfriend for several years.
Moreno said that he, Rubio and another man with whom Moreno was involved often spent time together.
Under questioning by Assistant District Attorney L.J. Rabb, Moreno testified that about two weeks before the murders, Rubio had asked both men if they knew how to commit the perfect murder.
“You act insane so you can get away with it,” Moreno said he told him.
During cross-examination, Perez asked Moreno why the comment about the perfect murder was not in any previous statements given to the police or to court officials.
“I didn't want to get involved,” Moreno said
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