Texas Man Scheduled to be Executed for Killing Woman and Child

By Ayden Runnels, The Texas Tribune

HUNTSVILLE, TX — Cedric Ricks, who was convicted of capital murder in 2014 for stabbing his common-law wife and her 8-year-old son to death in their North Texas apartment, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday evening.

In 2013, during an argument with Roxann Sanchez, Ricks stabbed her and her two sons, an 8-year-old and a 12-year-old from Sanchez’s previous marriage, in their Bedford apartment, according to court records. Sanchez and the 8-year-old died during the attack, but the 12-year-old survived after playing dead and was recovered by police shortly afterward. Ricks and Sanchez also had a 9-month-old child, whom Ricks did not harm. Before fleeing the apartment, he placed the infant in a crib.

Ricks fled to Oklahoma and called a family member and allegedly confessed to the killings. The family member then contacted the police, according to court and Texas Department of Criminal Justice records. Upon his conviction, Ricks was sentenced to death in 2014.

Ricks currently has an application for a stay of execution pending at the U.S. Supreme Court. The application seeks to overturn a March 4 ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that denied his request for a stay on procedural grounds without reviewing the merits of the case. The Supreme Court previously denied an appeal from Ricks in 2025 that alleged constitutional violations for allowing the jury in his trial to see him in shackles, which a Supreme Court precedent has ruled can unfairly sway sentencing.

A separate appeal from Ricks, denied by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2024, also alleged that the prosecution struck two potential Black jurors because of their race.

If his sentence is carried out, Ricks’ execution will be the second in Texas this year. Three other men on the state’s death row currently have scheduled executions, with James Broadnax scheduled to be executed on April 30. 

Broadnax was convicted of capital murder in the 2009 fatal shootings of two men during a robbery in Garland, Texas. At his trial, 40 pages of rap lyrics that referenced robbery and murder written by Broadnax were presented as evidence against him by prosecutors. On Monday, several nationally recognized rappers, including Houston-born artist Travis Scott, filed amicus briefs in support of Broadnax’s appeal in the Supreme Court arguing the inclusion of the lyrics was erroneous and racially charged.