Texas to execute man who killed his girlfriend and her eight-year-old son in 2013 | Texas

A North Texas man faces execution Wednesday for fatally stabbing his girlfriend and her eight-year-old son nearly 13 years ago.

Cedric Ricks was sentenced to death for the May 2013 murders of Roxann Sanchez, 30, and her son Anthony Figueroa in their apartment in Bedford, a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Sanchez’s 12-year-old son, Marcus Figueroa, was injured in the attack.

Ricks, 51, is expected to receive a lethal injection after 6 p.m. Central time at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, about 70 miles north of Houston.

About nine hours before the scheduled execution, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a brief order denying Ricks’ final appeal to block the execution. No reason was given for the refusal.

His lawyers had asked the court to stay his execution, arguing that prosecutors violated Ricks’ constitutional rights by eliminating potential jurors on the basis of their race. Ricks’ previous appeals, alleging ineffective counsel and calling for the suppression of evidence in the case, had been rejected.

In a 1986 decision known as Batson v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court determined that excluding jurors based on their race violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

“At trial, Ricks already suspected that the State had cherry-picked minority jurors to exclude them from its jury,” Ricks’ attorneys said in their petition to the Supreme Court.

Ricks’ lawyers said notes kept by prosecutors during the jury selection process, which were not obtained until 2021, show prosecutors chose the minority jurors.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office said court records show the prosecution’s jury selection decisions were “race neutral” and that lower courts have previously found prosecutors’ actions were not discriminatory.

Ricks “viciously stabbed to death his girlfriend Roxann and her eight-year-old son Anthony,” the attorney general’s office said. “The public has a keen interest in the execution of Ricks’ sentence.”

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied Ricks’ request for a 90-day reprieve or to commute his death sentence.

Prosecutors said Ricks and Sanchez were arguing in their apartment when Sanchez’s two sons from a previous marriage – Anthony and Marcus Figueroa – tried to break up the fight.

Ricks grabbed a knife from the kitchen and began stabbing Sanchez multiple times, according to court records.

Marcus Figueroa ran to his bedroom closet and tried to call the police. After killing Anthony Figueroa, Ricks returned to stabbing Marcus Figueroa, who survived the attack by playing dead. Ricks did not harm his own then-nine-month-old son, Isaiah, according to court records.

Ricks fled and was later arrested in Oklahoma.

During his trial, Ricks said he had anger issues and defended himself against the two boys after they stood up for their mother.

“To explain my rage, I was upset. Things happen. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I wish I could bring them back, like, now,” said Ricks, who also apologized for the killings.

A day before the stabbing, Ricks appeared in court after being accused of assaulting Sanchez in a previous incident.

If the execution goes ahead, Ricks would be the second person put to death this year in Texas and the sixth in the country. Texas has historically carried out more executions than any other state.

Charles “Sonny” Burton, a 75-year-old Alabama inmate, was scheduled to be executed Thursday. But Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey commuted his death sentence Tuesday, reducing it to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Burton was sentenced to death for a fatal shooting during a 1991 robbery, even though he did not pull the trigger.