Hidalgo County judge picked to preside over John Allen Rubio capital murder trial
Hidalgo County 370th State District Judge Noe Gonzalez has been assigned to preside over the capital murder trial of accused child killer John Allen Rubio.
A status hearing has been set for Dec. 17 and will be heard in one of Cameron County's state district courtrooms, an official with Gonzalez's court said.
State District Judge J. Manuel Bañales, of Corpus Christi, the presiding judge in the Fifth Administrative Judicial Region, notified Gonzalez on Wednesday that he would preside over the trial.
Rubio's trial was to be heard before Cameron County State District Judge Arturo C. Nelson. However, Nelson recused himself from hearing the trial earlier this week.
Rubio, 29, is accused of murdering his three children in Brownsville on March 11, 2003. The children were smothered, stabbed and mutilated, according to investigators.
He was convicted in November 2003 on three counts of capital murder in the deaths of his children, Julissa Quesada, 3, John E. Rubio, 14 months, and Mary Jane Rubio, 2 months. Rubio pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity during the trial and was sentenced to death.
However, Rubio’s conviction was reversed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in September 2007, thereby granting him a new trial. He remains incarcerated at the Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center in Olmito.
For more on this story, read Friday's Brownsville Herald.
