Moments before execution, killer tearfully apologizes to son of slain mother

Texas has executed a death row inmate who fatally stabbed his girlfriend and her 8-year-old son in a fit of rage before he turned the knife on her 12-year-old son, who miraculously survived the attack.

Cedric Ricks, 51, was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday, March 11, for the murder of 30-year-old Roxann Sanchez and her 8-year-old son Anthony. Ricks stabbed them both repeatedly after he got into an argument with Sanchez on May 1, 2013, at their apartment in Bedford, Texas − between Dallas and Fort Worth.

Ricks also attacked Sanchez's 12-year-old son Marcus with just as much fury, stabbing him repeatedly in the back of the head. But the boy was able to survive by pretending to make the same gurgling sound he heard his younger brother make just before Ricks stopped stabbing him, according to court records.

Although he survived the merciless attack, Marcus had witnessed his mother's and brother's murder, and had to recount the horror during Ricks' murder trial. A 9-month-old son shared by Ricks and Sanchez was left unharmed.

On Wednesday, the now-25-year-old Marcus was among seven family members who witnessed Ricks' execution. Marcus, whose scars from the attack were visible on the back of his neck, showed no emotion as Ricks tearfully apologized to him, according to a media witness with the Associated Press.

“I want to say that I’m sorry for taking Roxann and Anthony from y’all,” Ricks said just moments before the lethal drugs course through his veins, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “I can't imagine the pain it has caused you, I’m glad to be able to speak to tell y’all that face to face.”

Ricks was pronounced dead at 6:55 p.m. CT. He is the sixth inmate executed in the U.S. this year and the second in Texas.

Ricks' attorneys had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution, arguing in a recent filing that trial prosecutors eliminated jurors based on their race in violation of his constitutional rights. The court declined to intervene.

Here's what to know about Ricks' execution, including more of his last words.

What were Cedric Ricks' last words?

Ricks repeatedly apologized to Sanchez's family members as he lay on his death bed, especially to Marcus. Ricks also said that he hoped they could find forgiveness in their hearts one day "so you don't have to live with the pain anymore."

“And to Marcus, I always thought about you and I’m sorry that I took your mom and your brother away," Ricks said. "I hate that you had to experience that, I just can’t imagine, but I’m truly sorry for what I’ve done, and I wish y’all peace and joy as much as you can but I’m sorry, that’s all I can say.”

Ricks' voice cracked and a tear formed in his eye, the AP reported. Ricks added that he hopes to find Sanchez and Anthony in heaven to "tell them I'm sorry face to face."

None of Sanchez's seven family members showed any emotion during the execution and declined to speak with reporters afterward, the AP reported. They also declined USA TODAY's request for comment earlier in the week, asking for privacy.

What was Cedric Ricks convicted of?

On May 1, 2013, Cedrick Ricks and his girlfriend Roxann Sanchez got into an argument that quickly turned physical, according to court records.

Sanchez's two sons from a previous marriage, 8-year-old Anthony and 12-year-old Marcus, tried to intervene by getting between the couple but Ricks was too powerful. He pushed the boys down and continued punching their mother before he ran to get a knife from the kitchen.

Ricks then began stabbing Sanchez while Marcus ran to call police. Ricks ran the boy down, began stabbing him and then began stabbing Anthony.

It was "a nightmarish episode of brutality," the Texas Attorney General's Office said in a recent filing in the U.S. Supreme Court.

After the attack, Ricks put the knife back in the kitchen, showered, packed some clothes, put his 9-month old son Isaiah into his crib and left the apartment. Police later tracked him down to Oklahoma and arrested him.

A jury found Ricks guilty of capital murder following a two-week trial during which Marcus testified against him.

"He held my head down with one hand and stabbed me with the other hand," the boy testified, according to an archived story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "He stabbed me a bunch of times. He didn't say anything."

Ricks also testified, telling the jurors deciding his fate that he wanted to die.

"I wish I could bring them back," he told the court, according to the Star-Telegram. "But I can't fix this ... I don't want everybody 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."

Who was Cedric Ricks?

A native of Chicago, Ricks moved to Texas when he lost his job three years before the murders.

In addition to the son he shared with Roxann Sanchez, he also fathered another son during a previous relationship that also was abusive. His ex-wife, Teshana Singleton, testified that Ricks tried to kill her multiple times before their divorce in 2004, including once when he was beating and choking her before bystanders intervened, the Star-Telegram reported in a 2013 story.

Five months before he murdered Sanchez and her son, the Star-Telegram reported that Ricks had been charged with assault and injury to a child for choking her and getting rough with their baby. Sanchez had gotten an emergency protective order against Ricks but it expired four months before the murder, the newspaper reported.

Ricks' parents testified that their son had always been prone to violence and that they did everything they could think of to get him help, including therapists, commitment to a psychiatric facility and physical punishment. But nothing stuck.

In letters to his sons from death row, Ricks wrote about some of his regrets but offered little explanation for the violence he committed, according to a book written by a friend called "These Dry Bones, Redemption from Death Row."

"Sometimes I wake up kicking and screaming for what I have done to you," he wrote to his sons. "I can’t say sorry enough for what I’ve done ... My prayer is that you can forgive me. My prayer is that you both will carry on the legacy of who I have become in Christ, and not who I use to be."

When is the next execution in the U.S.?

The next execution in the U.S. is that of Michael King in Florida on March 17. He was convicted of raping and killing Denise Amber Lee, a 21-year-old mother of two who also was the daughter of a local county sheriff's sergeant.

Ricks' execution on Wednesday was supposed to be one of two in the U.S. this week. Alabama had been set to execute Charles "Sonny" Burton by the controversial new method of nitrogen gas on Thursday for a 1991 robbery gone bad that left a 34-year-old father dead. But Republican Gov. Kay Ivey intervened two days before the execution and commuted Burton's sentence to life in prison, saying that executing him would be "unjust" because he wasn't even in the building when one of his accomplices in the robbery committed the murder of Doug Battle.

It was just the second time in Ivey's nearly nine years in office that she commuted a death row inmate's sentence to life in prison. During that nine years she has presided over 25 executions.

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who covers cold case investigations, breaking news and the death penalty for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.