Daijiworld Media Network - Texas

Texas, Mar 12: A Texas man, Cedric Ricks, 51, was executed Wednesday evening for the 2013 killings of his girlfriend Roxann Sanchez and her 8-year-old son Anthony Figueroa, while her 12-year-old son Marcus Figueroa, who survived by playing dead, watched the execution.

Ricks was pronounced dead at 6:55 p.m. CDT at the Huntsville State Penitentiary after receiving a lethal dose of pentobarbital. He had apologized profusely to the victims’ relatives, particularly to Marcus, acknowledging the pain he caused. “I always thought about you and I’m sorry that I took your mom and your brother away,” Ricks said before the injection began.

The 2013 attack occurred in Bedford, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, after an argument with Sanchez. Ricks stabbed Sanchez and her children when they intervened, leaving Marcus with multiple stab wounds. He did not harm his own 9-month-old son, Isaiah. Ricks fled the scene and was later arrested in Oklahoma.

During his capital murder trial, Ricks cited anger issues and claimed self-defense against the boys. He had previously faced assault charges related to Sanchez.

The execution followed the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting his final appeal, which argued that racial bias occurred during jury selection. Texas courts had deemed the prosecution’s actions “race neutral.” Earlier this week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied a request to commute his death sentence.

Ricks was the second person executed in Texas this year and the sixth in the U.S. Texas continues to hold the highest number of executions among U.S. states.

The tragedy leaves lasting scars for Marcus, whose neck bears visible scars from the attack, and the family continues to cope with the trauma of that night more than a decade later.