Texas Man Faces Execution for 2013 Double Stabbing of Girlfriend and Her Young Son

A 51-year-old North Texas man was scheduled for lethal injection Wednesday evening for the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend and her 8-year-old son in May 2013. Cedric Ricks was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of 30-year-old Roxann Sanchez and her son Anthony Figueroa at their Bedford, Texas apartment, located in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. A second child, 12-year-old Marcus Figueroa, survived the attack by feigning death after fleeing to a bedroom closet and attempting to call authorities. According to court records, the violence erupted during a domestic dispute between Ricks and Sanchez. When her sons intervened, Ricks retrieved a kitchen knife and began stabbing Sanchez repeatedly. He then turned on the children. A 9-month-old infant, Ricks' own son, was left unharmed. Ricks subsequently fled the scene and was later apprehended in Oklahoma. During trial, he claimed he had been acting in self-defense and expressed remorse for the killings. Ricks' legal team petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution, alleging that prosecutors unconstitutionally excluded minority jurors during jury selection — a violation of the Equal Protection Clause as established by the Supreme Court's 1986 Batson v. Kentucky ruling. Attorneys cited prosecutor notes obtained in 2021 as supporting evidence. The Texas Attorney General's Office countered that jury selection decisions were race-neutral and that lower courts had already rejected discrimination claims. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Ricks' request for a reprieve or sentence commutation earlier in the week. If carried out, the execution would mark the second in Texas this year and the sixth nationally, continuing the state's record as the leading executor in the United States.