Killer who stabbed his girlfriend and her 8-year-old son in Bedford is executed
Cedric Ricks told the jury at his trial that he wanted to die. On Wednesday night, with a dose of pentobarbital delivered by needles affixed to his arms by clear tape and pumped into his veins, Ricks’ wish was fulfilled.
He took deep, quick agonal breaths and snored as the barbiturate took effect. Ricks gurgled three times.
In 2013, Ricks killed his girlfriend and her 8-year-old son in a Bedford apartment to eliminate them as witnesses in a then-pending assault case in which he was accused of strangling her.
He stabbed Roxann Sanchez, 30, and her son Anthony Figueroa in the neck, chest, hands and face. A jury found him guilty of capital murder and concluded he should be sentenced to death.
Ricks also stabbed Sanchez’s other son, 12-year-old Marcus Figueroa, who made a gurgling noise, a sound that had come from Anthony, to try to suggest to Ricks that he was dead and stop the stabbing. Marcus mimicked the last breaths of his younger brother.
In the death chamber at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit, Ricks apologized in his last statement to the third, surviving victim, Marcus Figueroa, who watched the execution through glass, the closest person among his relatives in an observation room to Ricks.
“I’m sorry that I took your mom and your brother away,” Ricks said.
“I hope to find Roxann and Anthony in heaven, and I can tell them I’m sorry face to face.”
A doctor pronounced Ricks, 51, dead at 6:55 p.m. Senior Warden Kelly Strong covered his face with a white sheet.
Ricks testified in the punishment phase of his trial. He avoided questions on motive.
“I don’t know, I don’t know!” he screamed from the witness stand in the 371st District Court in Tarrant County. “I wish I could bring them back, right now, right now. But I can’t do that. I used to be able to fix things. But I can’t fix this. I can’t fix this. With all the money in the world I can’t fix it. That’s how I grew up. You fix it. But I can’t fix it. And I’m sorry I have to meet everybody like this. I don’t want everyone to look at me like I’m a monster. I tried to kill myself two or three times. But I can’t even do that right.”
Attorneys Bill Ray and Steve Gordon were appointed to represent Ricks at trial.
Attorneys Bob Gill and Rob Huseman represented the state.
“Ricks received the death penalty because he committed a brutal, horrendous offense against a woman and children,” Gill wrote in a statement in response to a reporter’s inquiry. “He murdered a mother and her child and did everything he could to murder a second child who miraculously survived to testify against Ricks.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2026 at 7:39 PM.
