Updated March 11, 2026, 9:51 p.m. ET
Texas has executed a death row inmate who fatally stabbed his girlfriend and her 8-year-old son in a match of rage earlier than he turned the knife on her 12-year-old son, who miraculously survived the assault.
Cedric Ricks, 51, was executed by deadly injection on Wednesday, March 11, for the murder of 30-year-old Roxann Sanchez and her 8-year-old son Anthony. Ricks stabbed them each repeatedly after he bought into an argument with Sanchez on May 1, 2013, at their condominium in Bedford, Texas − between Dallas and Fort Worth.
Ricks additionally attacked Sanchez’s 12-year-old son Marcus with simply as a lot fury, stabbing him repeatedly within the again of the top. But the boy was in a position to survive by pretending to make the identical gurgling sound he heard his youthful brother make simply earlier than Ricks stopped stabbing him, in response to courtroom data.
Although he survived the cruel assault, Marcus had witnessed his mom’s and brother’s murder, and needed to recount the horror throughout Ricks’ murder trial. A 9-month-old son shared by Ricks and Sanchez was left unhurt.
On Wednesday, the now-25-year-old Marcus was amongst seven relations who witnessed Ricks’ execution. Marcus, whose scars from the assault have been seen on the again of his neck, confirmed no emotion as Ricks tearfully apologized to him, according to a media witness with the Associated Press.
“I want to say that I’m sorry for taking Roxann and Anthony from y’all,” Ricks mentioned simply moments earlier than the deadly medication course by his veins, in response to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “I can’t imagine the pain it has caused you, I’m glad to be able to speak to tell y’all that face to face.”
Ricks was pronounced lifeless at 6:55 p.m. CT. He is the sixth inmate executed within the U.S. this 12 months and the second in Texas.
Ricks’ attorneys had requested the U.S. Supreme Court to cease the execution, arguing in a recent filing that trial prosecutors eradicated jurors primarily based on their race in violation of his constitutional rights. The courtroom declined to intervene.
Here’s what to learn about Ricks’ execution, together with extra of his final phrases.
What have been Cedric Ricks’ final phrases?
Ricks repeatedly apologized to Sanchez’s relations as he lay on his demise mattress, particularly to Marcus. Ricks additionally mentioned that he hoped they may discover forgiveness of their hearts in the future “so you don’t have to live with the pain anymore.”
“And to Marcus, I always thought about you and I’m sorry that I took your mom and your brother away,” Ricks said. “I hate that you had to experience that, I just can’t imagine, but I’m truly sorry for what I’ve done, and I wish y’all peace and joy as much as you can but I’m sorry, that’s all I can say.”
Ricks’ voice cracked and a tear shaped in his eye, the AP reported. Ricks added that he hopes to search out Sanchez and Anthony in heaven to “tell them I’m sorry face to face.”
None of Sanchez’s seven relations confirmed any emotion throughout the execution and declined to talk with reporters afterward, the AP reported. They additionally declined USA TODAY’s request for remark earlier within the week, asking for privateness.
What was Cedric Ricks convicted of?
On May 1, 2013, Cedrick Ricks and his girlfriend Roxann Sanchez bought into an argument that rapidly turned bodily, in response to courtroom data.
Sanchez’s two sons from a earlier marriage, 8-year-old Anthony and 12-year-old Marcus, tried to intervene by getting between the couple however Ricks was too highly effective. He pushed the boys down and continued punching their mom earlier than he ran to get a knife from the kitchen.
Ricks then started stabbing Sanchez whereas Marcus ran to name police. Ricks ran the boy down, started stabbing him and then started stabbing Anthony.
It was “a nightmarish episode of brutality,” the Texas Attorney General’s Office said in a recent filing within the U.S. Supreme Court.
After the assault, Ricks put the knife again within the kitchen, showered, packed some garments, put his 9-month previous son Isaiah into his crib and left the condominium. Police later tracked him right down to Oklahoma and arrested him.
A jury discovered Ricks responsible of capital murder following a two-week trial throughout which Marcus testified in opposition to him.
“He held my head down with one hand and stabbed me with the other hand,” the boy testified, in response to an archived story within the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “He stabbed me a bunch of times. He didn’t say anything.”
Ricks additionally testified, telling the jurors deciding his destiny that he wished to die.
“I wish I could bring them back,” he instructed the courtroom, in response to the Star-Telegram. “But I can’t fix this … I don’t want everybody to look at me like I’m a monster. I tried to kill myself two or three times but I can’t even do that right.”
Who was Cedric Ricks?
A local of Chicago, Ricks moved to Texas when he misplaced his job three years earlier than the murders.
In addition to the son he shared with Roxann Sanchez, he additionally fathered one other son throughout a earlier relationship that additionally was abusive. His ex-wife, Teshana Singleton, testified that Ricks tried to kill her a number of instances earlier than their divorce in 2004, together with as soon as when he was beating and choking her earlier than bystanders intervened, the Star-Telegram reported in a 2013 story.
Five months earlier than he murdered Sanchez and her son, the Star-Telegram reported that Ricks had been charged with assault and harm to a baby for choking her and getting tough with their child. Sanchez had gotten an emergency protecting order in opposition to Ricks however it expired 4 months earlier than the murder, the newspaper reported.
Ricks’ mother and father testified that their son had at all times been susceptible to violence and that they did every thing they may assume of to get him assist, together with therapists, dedication to a psychiatric facility and bodily punishment. But nothing caught.
In letters to his sons from demise row, Ricks wrote about some of his regrets however provided little rationalization for the violence he dedicated, according to a book written by a pal referred to as “These Dry Bones, Redemption from Death Row.”
“Sometimes I wake up kicking and screaming for what I have done to you,” he wrote to his sons. “I can’t say sorry enough for what I’ve done … My prayer is that you can forgive me. My prayer is that you both will carry on the legacy of who I have become in Christ, and not who I use to be.”
When is the following execution within the U.S.?
The subsequent execution within the U.S. is that of Michael King in Florida on March 17. He was convicted of raping and killing Denise Amber Lee, a 21-year-old mom of two who additionally was the daughter of an area county sheriff’s sergeant.
Ricks’ execution on Wednesday was alleged to be one of two within the U.S. this week. Alabama had been set to execute Charles “Sonny” Burton by the controversial new method of nitrogen gas on Thursday for a 1991 theft gone dangerous that left a 34-year-old father lifeless. But Republican Gov. Kay Ivey intervened two days earlier than the execution and commuted Burton’s sentence to life in jail, saying that executing him could be “unjust” as a result of he wasn’t even within the constructing when one of his accomplices within the theft dedicated the murder of Doug Battle.
It was simply the second time in Ivey’s practically 9 years in workplace that she commuted a demise row inmate’s sentence to life in jail. During that 9 years she has presided over 25 executions.
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who covers chilly case investigations, breaking information and the demise penalty for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.
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