A Texas man convicted of fatally stabbing his girlfriend and her young son nearly 13 years ago was executed Wednesday evening after a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was rejected earlier that day.
Cedric Ricks, 51, was pronounced dead at 6:55 p.m. CDT following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He had been on death row since being sentenced for the May 2013 killings of Roxann Sanchez, 30, and her 8-year-old son, Anthony Figueroa, at their apartment in Bedford, a suburb in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area.
What happened the night of the attack
According to court records, Ricks and Sanchez were involved in an argument at their apartment when her two sons from a previous relationship attempted to intervene. Ricks retrieved a knife from the kitchen and began stabbing Sanchez multiple times. When the boys tried to stop him, the situation turned deadly for young Anthony.
Sanchez’s other son, 12-year-old Marcus Figueroa, fled to his bedroom closet and attempted to call police. After killing Anthony, Ricks turned on Marcus and stabbed him as well. Marcus survived by pretending to be dead until Ricks left the apartment. Ricks’ own infant son, Isaiah, who was 9 months old at the time, was not harmed. Ricks fled the scene and was later apprehended in Oklahoma.
The attack occurred just one day after Ricks had appeared in court on charges related to a prior assault against Sanchez, underscoring a pattern of violence that prosecutors highlighted throughout the case.
Ricks’ defense and final legal efforts
During his capital murder trial, Ricks took the stand and claimed he had been acting in self-defense after the boys came to their mother’s aid. He acknowledged having longstanding anger issues and expressed remorse over the deaths, though his explanation did little to sway the jury. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death.
In the days leading up to his execution, Ricks’ legal team made several last-ditch attempts to halt the proceedings. His attorneys argued that prosecutors had violated his constitutional rights during jury selection by dismissing potential jurors based on race. The Texas Attorney General’s Office pushed back, maintaining that court records demonstrated the prosecution’s decisions were race-neutral and that lower courts had already ruled there was no discriminatory conduct involved.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Ricks’ final appeal without comment on the day of his execution. Earlier in the week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had also denied his request to commute his death sentence or grant a 90-day reprieve.
Where this execution fits in Texas history
Ricks was the second person executed in Texas so far in 2026 and the sixth in the United States this year. Texas has long carried out more executions than any other state in the country.
Separately, in Alabama, a scheduled execution was called off this week. Charles “Sonny” Burton, 75, had been set to be put to death Thursday for a fatal shooting during a 1991 robbery, despite not having pulled the trigger himself. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey stepped in Monday and commuted his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Source: Associated Press, as reported by Fox 8 Cleveland WJW
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