Execution Report: Cedric Ricks

Cedrick Allen Ricks, 51, was executed by lethal injection on 11 March 2026 in Huntsville, Texas for killing his live-in girlfriend and her son during an argument.

Ricks and Roxann Sanchez lived together in an apartment in Bedford in northeast Tarrant County. They had a child together, nine-month-old Isaiah. Sanchez's two sons from a previous marriage--Marcus Figueroa, 12, and Anthony Figueroa, 8--also lived with them.

Shortly after 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 1 May 2013, Sanchez, 30, and her three sons arrived home from the grocery store. Sanchez carried Isaiah upstairs to their third-floor apartment, leaving some of the groceries in the car. The three boys went to their bedroom to play while she cooked dinner. About fifteen minutes later, Ricks, then 38, and Sanchez began arguing. When the yelling turned into screaming, Marcus and Anthony ran into the living room to see Ricks and Sanchez hitting each other. Ricks pushed Sanchez to the floor. Marcus and Anthony tried to get between them, but Ricks pushed Marcus down and continued hitting Sanchez with his fists. Ricks then took a knife from a kitchen drawer and stabbed Sanchez multiple times while she tried to protect herself.

Marcus ran to his bedroom closet and tried to call the police, but Ricks followed him and pulled the closet door open. Marcus dropped his phone and grabbed the knife Ricks was holding, cutting his hand in the process.

Ricks chased Marcus back into the living room. Anthony was standing next to the couch with blood on his face, asking Marcus to get help. Ricks pushed Marcus to the ground, held his head down, and stabbed him multiple times in the back of his neck. Ricks then pushed Anthony to the ground next to Marcus and stabbed him while he watched. Ricks stopped stabbing Anthony after he made a gurgling noise. When Marcus tried to get up, Ricks got on top of him and resumed stabbing him. Marcus played dead by imitating the gurgling noise he heard Anthony make. Ricks then stopped stabbing him.

Ricks then took the knife to the kitchen and washed his hands. He then went to the master bedroom and took a shower. He made a telephone call, packed his clothes, placed Isaiah in his crib, and eventually left the apartment. Meanwhile, Marcus, who was bleeding badly, remained motionless on the floor out of fear that Ricks would stab him again if he got up. After Marcus was confident Ricks was not coming back, he got up. He looked out of the window and noticed that his mother's car was gone.

After leaving the apartment, Ricks called his cousin, Tamara Butts, who lived in Mansfield, in southeast Tarrant County. He told Butts he "did something bad" and asked to speak to her father, Joseph Sanders. Ricks told Sanders he "messed up" and that he killed Sanchez and the boys. He asked Sanders to get Isaiah from the apartment. He then told Butts that he killed Sanchez, Marcus, and Anthony and that his hands were injured and cut. He refused to tell Butts how he killed them or where he was. Butts urged Ricks to turn himself in, but he replied that he would rather die than go to jail.

Butts then called 9-1-1. She began driving with her parents to Bedford to get Isaiah, but the police told them to go to the station instead. Bedford police were dispatched to Ricks' apartment at 8:42 p.m. Officer Clayton Baxley arrived first. He heard a baby screaming, but was instructed to wait outside until another officer arrived. Marcus then called 9-1-1 from inside the apartment. He told the operator that his mother's boyfriend stabbed and killed his mother and brother and left in his mother's car. Marcus was unable to open the door because of the injuries on his hands, but Officer Baxley was then given permission to enter. He found Marcus "covered in blood from head to toe." The back of his head, neck, and shoulders were severely lacerated and bleeding profusely. Marcus was taken to the hospital by helicopter. Isaiah was also taken as a precautionary measure; he was found to be unharmed.

Autopsies on Sanchez and Anthony found that both died from stab wounds to the head and neck. Blunt force head trauma and asphyxia were contributing factors to Sanchez's death.

With the phone company's assistance, Ricks was located in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Oklahoma state troopers located Sanchez's vehicle being driven north on Interstate 35 at 10:30 p.m. They initiated a traffic stop and matched the driver, Ricks, to the suspect in the murders. He was booked into the Garvin County jail and then taken to a hospital to receive treatment for his hands.

Bedford police arrived at the jail at 8:16 a.m. Ricks invoked his right to counsel and refused to waive extradition to Texas. Later that day he was taken to the hospital again to be treated for injuries received from his cellmates, allegedly from a fight that started after he told them he killed his girlfriend and her sons. He returned to jail on the morning of 3 May and subsequently waived his extradition rights.

Marcus recovered from his wounds. In addition to his testimony, the prosecution presented a witness who heard Ricks yell at Sanchez on the stairwell while she was carrying two bags of groceries. He said, "Don't have me [expletive] come down here and waste my [expletive] time on this [expletive]."

Ricks' defense at his trial focused on constitutional challenges to various pieces of evidence the prosecution presented, such as items found in his apartment before a search warrant was issued, and what the defense alleged was an improper traffic stop by Oklahoma state troopers, who had observed no traffic violation.

At Ricks' punishment hearing, Sanchez's mother, Diana McGrewe, testified that six months prior to the murders, Sanchez obtained an emergency protective order against Ricks because he assaulted and injured her. Cynthia Crowe, a triage nurse, testified that in November 2012, she saw Sanchez in the emergency room. Sanchez told Crowe that she was a victim of domestic battery. Her head had been pounded on the floor, and she had been choked until she passed out.

One day before the murders, Ricks had appeared in court on charges from his previous assault of Sanchez.

Ricks admitted in court that he had trouble controlling his anger.

"Explaining my rage, I was upset," he said. "Things happen. I don't know. I don't know. I wish I could bring them back, like, right now."

Continued on Page 2