A Texas death row inmate who murdered his ex-girlfriend and her 8-year-old son used his final moments before his execution Wednesday to apologize to the woman’s surviving son, whom he stabbed 25 times in a 2013 attack.
Cedric Ricks, 51, told seven relatives of the victims watching from behind glass windows inside the Huntsville jail that he was sorry “for taking Roxanne and Anthony away from you,” adding that he hoped they would one day be forgiven.
Ricks was convicted in 2014 of capital murder for stabbing 30-year-old Roxanne Sanchez and her 8-year-old son Anthony Figueroa multiple times with a kitchen knife during an argument in May 2013 at Sanchez’s apartment in Bedford, the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“I can’t imagine the pain it causes you. I’m so happy to be able to tell you this face to face,” Ricks said. “I just hope that one day you can find forgiveness in your heart so you don’t have to endure the pain anymore.”
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Cedric Rix was executed on March 10, 2026 for the 2013 killings of Roxanne Sanchez and her 8-year-old son Anthony Figueroa.
(AP Newsroom)
Marcus Figueroa, a 12-year-old boy who survived the attack, showed no visible emotion as he watched it all from just steps away from the gurney. There was a visible scar on the back of his neck above the collar of his shirt – the mark of a stab wound that nearly killed him.
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“To Marcus, I’m thinking of you all the time and I’m sorry I took your mom and brother away from you,” Ricks said. “I hate that you had to go through something like this…I’m so sorry for what I did.”
“I hope to find Roxanne and Anthony in heaven and I can tell them face to face that I’m sorry… I hope you all go away in peace,” he added.
Ricks was pronounced dead at 6:55 p.m. Central Time after receiving a fatal injection of pentobarbital at Huntsville State Prison.
Prosecutors said Rickles and Sanchez were arguing when her two sons tried to intervene, FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth reported. Ricks grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed Sanchez multiple times before turning the weapon on the boys.
Marcus Figueroa was stabbed 25 times but survived by pretending to be dead before Ricks left the apartment.
Court records cited by the AP show that Rickles did not harm his son Isaiah, who was 9 months old at the time.
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Huntsville Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, where Cedric Ricks was executed.
Sanchez died from a stab wound to the neck, blunt force trauma to the head and asphyxiation, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Rickles fled in Sanchez’s car and called his family to confess to the killing. Authorities tracked his cell phone and arrested him in Garvin County, Oklahoma, before extraditing him back to Texas.
At trial, Ricks admitted he struggled with anger and claimed he had been defending himself after the boys came to their mother’s aid, the Associated Press reported. He appeared in court on assault charges involving Sanchez the day before the killing, the outlet reported.
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File photo of the Walled Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, where death row inmates are executed.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Ricks’ final appeal without comment. His attorneys argued that prosecutors improperly targeted potential jurors based on race, but the Texas Attorney General’s Office said court records showed the jury selection decision was race-neutral and had been upheld by lower courts.
Earlier this week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Ricks’ request for clemency or a temporary reprieve.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Original source of the article: Texas death row inmate uses final statement to speak directly to victim’s family before execution
