Texas is set to executea death row inmatewho 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, is set to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday, March 11, for the murder of 30-year-old Roxann Sanchez and her 8-year-old Anthony. Ricks stabbed them both repeatedly after he got into an argument with Sanchez on May 1, 2013.
Ricks also attacked Sanchez's 12-year-old 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.
It was "a nightmarish episode of brutality," the Texas Attorney General's Officesaid in a recent filingin theU.S. Supreme Court.
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.
Here's what to know about Ricks' execution.
When is Cedric Ricks' execution?
Cedric Ricks is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. CT on Wednesday, March 11, in what's known as the Huntsville Unit at a state prison just outside of Houston.
If Ricks' execution moves forward as expected, he will bethe sixth inmateexecuted in the U.S. this year andthe second in Texas.
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.
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.
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"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 is Cedric Ricks?
A native of Chicago, Ricks moved to Texas three years before the murders after losing his job.
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 of some of his regrets but offered little explanation for the violence he committed,according to a bookwritten 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."
Ricks' attorneys are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution,arguing in a recent filingthat trial prosecutors eliminated jurors based on their race in violation of his constitutional rights. The state is rejecting that argument and saying that it amounts to a delay tactic.
When is the next execution in the U.S.?
The next execution in the U.S. is that ofMichael Kingin Florida on March 17. He was convicted of raping and killingDenise Amber Lee, a 21-year-old mother of two who also was the daughter of a local county sheriff's sergeant.
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.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Texas to execute inmate for 'nightmarish' murder of girlfriend, son