Texas death row inmate uses final statement before execution to speak directly to victims' family

A Texas decease enactment inmate who killed his ex-girlfriend and her 8-year-old lad utilized his last moments earlier execution Wednesday to apologize to the woman’s surviving lad — whom helium stabbed 25 times during the 2013 attack.

Cedric Ricks, 51, addressed 7 relatives of his victims who watched from down a solid model wrong the Huntsville Unit situation and said helium was atrocious for "taking Roxann and Anthony distant from y’all," adding that helium hoped they could 1 time find forgiveness.

Ricks was convicted of superior execution successful 2014 for sidesplitting Roxann Sanchez, 30, and her 8-year-old son, Anthony Figueroa, by stabbing them aggregate times with a room weapon during an statement astatine Sanchez’s flat successful Bedford, a suburb successful the Dallas-Fort Worth area, successful May 2013.

"I can't ideate the symptom it has caused you. I'm gladsome I americium capable to talk to archer y'all that face-to-face," Ricks said. "I conscionable anticipation 1 time you tin find forgiveness successful your heart, truthful you don't person to unrecorded with the symptom anymore."

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Cedric Ricks was executed March 10, 2026, for the 2013 killings of Roxann Sanchez and her 8-year-old son, Anthony Figueroa. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice; FRANCOIS PICARD/AFP via Getty Images)

Marcus Figueroa, who survived the onslaught arsenic a 12-year-old boy, showed nary disposable emotion arsenic helium watched from conscionable steps distant from the gurney. Scars were disposable connected the backmost of his cervix supra his garment collar — remnants of the stabbing that astir killed him.

"And to Marcus, I ever thought astir you, and I'm atrocious that I took your ma and your member away," Ricks said. "I hatred that you had to acquisition that... I'm genuinely atrocious for what I've done."

"I anticipation to find Roxann and Anthony successful Heaven, and I tin archer them I'm atrocious look to face… I anticipation y'all spell successful peace," helium added.

Ricks was pronounced dormant astatine 6:55 p.m. CDT aft receiving a lethal injection of pentobarbital astatine the authorities penitentiary successful Huntsville.

According to FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth, prosecutors said Ricks and Sanchez were arguing erstwhile her 2 sons attempted to intervene. Ricks grabbed a room weapon and stabbed Sanchez aggregate times earlier turning the limb connected the boys.

Marcus Figueroa was stabbed 25 times but survived aft pretending to beryllium dormant until Ricks near the apartment. 

Ricks did not harm his ain then-9-month-old son, Isaiah, according to tribunal records cited by The Associated Press.

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The Huntsville Unit situation successful Huntsville, Texas, wherever Cedric Ricks was enactment to death (FRANCOIS PICARD/AFP via Getty Images)

Sanchez died from stab wounds to the neck, blunt unit trauma to the caput and asphyxia, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Ricks fled successful Sanchez’s car and called household members to confess to the killings. Authorities traced his cellphone and arrested him successful Garvin County, Oklahoma, and helium was extradited backmost to Texas. 

At trial, Ricks acknowledged helium struggled with choler and claimed helium had been defending himself aft the boys came to their mother’s aid, according to the AP. He had appeared successful tribunal the time earlier the killings connected a anterior battle complaint involving Sanchez, the outlet reported.

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File photograph of The Walls Unit successful Huntsville, Texas, wherever prisoners from decease enactment are executed.  (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Ricks’ last entreaty Wednesday without comment. His attorneys had argued prosecutors improperly struck imaginable jurors based connected race, but the Texas Attorney General’s Office said tribunal records showed the assemblage enactment decisions were race-neutral and had already been upheld by little courts.

Earlier successful the week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Ricks’ petition for clemency oregon a impermanent reprieve.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.