Cedric Rix became the sixth person to be executed in the United States in 2026, and the second in Texas. He murdered his girlfriend and 8-year-old son in Bedford, Texas, in 2013.
US expands death penalty methods
In modern history, most death row inmates faced one method of execution. There are now many other ways to die.
Texas executed a death row inmate who, in a fit of rage, stabbed his girlfriend and her 8-year-old son to death, then turned the knife on her 12-year-old son, who miraculously survived.
Cedric Rix, 51, was executed on Wednesday, March 11, for the murders of 30-year-old Roxanne Sanchez and her 8-year-old son Anthony. On May 1, 2013, Ricks got into an argument with Sanchez at their apartment in Bedford, Texas (between Dallas and Fort Worth) and stabbed them both repeatedly.
Ricks attacked Sanchez’s 12-year-old son Marcus in a similar rage, stabbing him multiple times in the back of the head. But according to court records, the boy was able to survive by pretending to make the same rumbling sound his brother made just before Rix stopped stabbing him.
Although Marcus survived the brutal attack, he witnessed the murder of his mother and brother and had to recount his horror during Rix’s murder trial. Ricks and Sanchez’s 9-month-old son was unharmed.
On Wednesday, Marcus, now 25, was among seven family members who witnessed Ricks’ execution. Witnesses told The Associated Press that Marcus, who had visible scars from the attack on the back of his neck, showed no emotion as Ricks tearfully apologized.
“I just want to say I’m sorry for taking Roxanne and Anthony from you,” Ricks said shortly before the deadly drug was pumped into his veins, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “I can’t imagine how much pain that must have caused you. I’m glad I was able to tell you all this face to face.”
Ricks was pronounced dead at 6:55 p.m. CT. He is the sixth inmate to be executed in the United States this year, and the second in Texas.
In a recent filing, Ricks’ lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution, arguing that trial prosecutors violated his constitutional rights by excluding jurors based on race. The court declined to intervene.
Here’s what you need to know about Rix’s execution, including Rix’s last words.
What were Cedric Rix’s last words?
Ricks repeatedly apologized to Sanchez’s family, especially Marcus, as he lay on his deathbed. Ricks also said she hopes someday their hearts can find forgiveness “so they don’t have to live with the pain anymore.”
“And to Marcus, I was thinking about you all the time. I’m sorry I took your mom and brother away,” Ricks said. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. I can’t even imagine, but I’m so sorry for what I’ve done. I wish you all as much peace and joy as possible, but I’m sorry, that’s all I can say.”
Ricks’ voice cracked and tears formed in his eyes, according to the Associated Press. Ricks added that she hopes to find Sanchez and Anthony in heaven and “tell them face to face that I’m sorry.”
According to the Associated Press, seven members of Sanchez’s family showed no emotion during the execution and refused to speak to reporters afterward. They also declined USA TODAY’s request for comment earlier in the week, requesting privacy.
What was Cedric Rix convicted of?
According to court records, on May 1, 2013, Cedric Ricks and his girlfriend, Roxanne Sanchez, got into an argument that quickly turned physical.
Sanchez’s two sons from a previous marriage, 8-year-old Anthony and 12-year-old Marcus, tried to intervene between the couple, but Rix was too powerful. He pushed the boys to the ground and continued to beat their mother before running to get a knife from the kitchen.
Ricks then began stabbing Sanchez while Marcus ran to call the police. Ricks chased the boy down and began stabbing him, then stabbing Anthony as well.
The Texas attorney general’s office said in a recent filing with the U.S. Supreme Court that it was a “nightmarish act of brutality.”
After the attack, Ricks returned the knife to the kitchen, took a shower, gathered his clothes, put his 9-month-old son, Isaiah, in his crib and left the apartment. Police later tracked him to Oklahoma and arrested him.
A jury found Ricks guilty of capital murder after a two-week trial in which Marcus testified against him.
According to an archived article published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the boy “held my head down with one hand and stabbed me with the other.” “He stabbed me multiple times. He didn’t say anything.”
Ricks also told the jury who would decide her fate that she “wanted to die.”
“I wish I could get them back,” he told the court, according to the Star-Telegram. “But I can’t fix this…I don’t want people to look at me like a monster. I’ve tried to kill myself a couple of times, but I can’t even do it properly.”
Who is Cedric Rix?
Ricks, a Chicago native, lost his job and moved to Texas three years before the murders.
In addition to his son with Roxanne Sanchez, he also had another son from a previous relationship that was also abusive. His ex-wife, Teshana Singleton, testified that before their 2004 divorce, Ricks tried to kill her multiple times, including once punching and strangling her before bystanders intervened, the Star-Telegram reported in a 2013 article.
Five months before killing Sanchez and her son, the Star-Telegram reported that Ricks was charged with assault and battery for allegedly strangling the child and assaulting the baby. The newspaper said Sanchez had an emergency protection order against Ricks, but it expired four months before the murder.
Ricks’ parents testified that their son had always been prone to violence and that they had done everything they could think of to get him help, including therapists, psychiatric care, and corporal punishment. But nothing caught.
In letters from death row to his sons, Mr. Ricks expressed some of his regrets, but rarely explained the violence he had committed, according to a friend’s book “Dry Bones: Redemption from Death Row.”
“Sometimes I wake up kicking and screaming for what I did to you,” he wrote to his sons. “I can’t apologize enough for what I did…My prayer is that you will forgive me. My prayer is that you both will continue to be who I am, not who I was, but who I am in Christ.”
When is the next execution in the United States?
The next execution in the United States was of Michael King on March 17th in Florida. He was convicted of raping and murdering Denise Amber Lee, a 21-year-old mother of two who was also the daughter of the local county sheriff.
Ricks’ execution on Wednesday was to be one of two to take place in the United States this week. Alabama on Thursday planned to execute Charles “Sonny” Burton using a controversial new method using nitrogen gas for the attempted robbery that killed his 34-year-old father in 1991. But two days before the execution, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey intervened and commuted Barton’s sentence to life in prison, saying Barton’s execution was “unjust” because he wasn’t even in the building when one of his robbery accomplices killed Doug Battle.
It was the second time in Ivey’s nearly nine years in office that a death row inmate’s sentence was commuted to life in prison. During those nine years, she directed 25 executions.
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter covering cold case investigations, breaking news and the death penalty for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.
