This man has just been executed for a horrific crime that involved the brutal stabbing murders of his wife and her young son during a senseless domestic altercation, capping off a life marred by escalating violence from his youth. His name was Cedric Allen Ricks and he was put to death by lethal injection at the Huntsville unit in Texas after more than a decade on death row.

 In this video, we’ll dive into his final words, his last meal request, and the brutal acts that sealed his fate in the execution chamber, breaking down every chilling crime he committed step by step from his early age to the desperate aftermath. Cedric Allen Ricks was born on September 8th, 1974. He grew up in a challenging family environment with his siblings and parents.

 The family noticed early signs of problems, describing him as difficult to manage from a young age. At age nine, Rick set fire to a tree in the front yard of their house. He threw stones into their house through the window, indicating impulsive and destructive behavior. Her mother recounted efforts to discipline him, including whipping and counseling, saying, “We tried everything we could to help him.

 We tried whipping him. We went to counselors. We did what we could. These anecdotes suggest a home environment where physical punishment was common and professional help was sought. But these interventions did not prevent a pattern of escalating issues. RX’s life took a tragic and violent turn during his teenage and early adult years, marking the beginning of a pattern of criminal behavior that spanned decades, fueled by untreated anger and impulse control problems.

 In his high school years around 1988 and early 1990s, Ricks committed his first known offenses, a series of assaults against his girlfriend at the time, Tina Brown, in Chicago. What transpired in these early crimes was a pattern of physical violence. Ricks would lash out during arguments, leading to confrontations that escalated to arrests on at least a couple of occasions.

 These incidents were driven by his aggressive behavior and trouble controlling anger. Police caught him through victim reports and direct interventions, such as when a school resource officer who witnessed RX forcibly removing Tina from the building and arrested him after handcuffing him. RX was known as a bully in high school with stories of him intimidating peers or getting into altercations.

These brushes with the law resulted in arrests but no long-term incarceration at the time, marking his entry into the system and setting a pattern of domestic violence. As a young offender, Ricks endured the consequences of his actions without significant rehabilitation, compounding his existing issues with anger and relationships.

As an adult, RX moved to Texas where he worked as a medical assistant, a job he held until his arrest at age 38. Personal descriptions from ex partners paint him as charming initially but violently possessive. His ex-wife, Tashana Singleton, described their relationship, which started around 1998, as abusive.

 In April 1998, what started as verbal arguments quickly turned violent. He punched Singleton in the jaw because she wanted to end the relationship. He would occasionally choke and punch her on different occasions. He broke a tooth and kicked her. Rick sometimes threw her down, threatened to kill her, and repeatedly stabbed the ground around her head and face with a knife, and issued death threats if she dared leave him.

Singleton obtained multiple protective orders, but RX constantly violated them, even threatening her father during exchanges. He violated a protective order in 2004 during a custody exchange at Illinois police station. He choked and beat her until she lost consciousness in front of the police station before the officers intervened after a passer by who saw Rick’s beating his ex-wife yelled for help.

 He admitted to doing that and was charged but no long-term change. Singleton later said in court he would apologize after saying he loved me but it never stopped. She also testified that after she gave birth to Rick’s son, he told her in the hospital, “I hope it dies.” Referring to their child, which makes him manipulative in nature.

 Things eventually ended between RX and Tashana, but he didn’t waste much time to get another woman and started treating her just the same way he treated Tashana. RX started dating Tamara Partridge in 2004. They had a misunderstanding where Rick slapped her, broke her phone, held her against the wall, and choked her on different occasions before their breakup in 2008.

The same year he met Jennifer Clark who reported that on different occasions they had arguments which results to a fight. And in one of those she recounted a specific incident where an argument escalated to the point where Rick explicitly threatened to kill her and prevented her from calling police during arguments. And in 2009 they parted ways.

In late 2011, RX met Roxan through their shared workplace. As they both worked in the medical field at the time, their relationship spiraled fast and they started dating. Roxan took in and the both of them cohabitated with Roxan and her two sons from a previous marriage. In November 2012, at age 38, RX committed another assault, choking his girlfriend, 30 years old, Roxan Sanchez, unconscious and beating her head on the bathroom floor in their Bedford apartment, also injuring one of her boys.

This led to Sanchez filing a protective order, barring Ricks from seeing their 8-month-old son, Isaiah, though it expired in January 2013. He was charged with assault, a pending case that factored into his final crime. While still grappling with his unresolved anger issues, brain predisposition to violence, and the pending assault case, Cedric Allen Ricks, then 38 years old, struck again with deadly force this time in a domestic dispute that spiraled into unimaginable brutality.

 On May 1st, 2013 in Bedford, Tarant County, Texas, Rick’s high on rage from the ongoing relationship strains in his pending assault charge was at their home in the Colonial Village Apartments with Roxson Sanchez, their 9-month-old son, Isaiah, and her two sons from a previous marriage, 8-year-old Anthony Figureroa and 12year-old Marcus Figueroa.

 What transpired next was a nightmare. Sanchez and the boys had just returned from Walmart to their thirdf flooror apartment in Bedford’s Colonial Village Apartments. Shortly after 700 p.m., Sanchez carried Isaiah and some groceries upstairs, leaving Moore in the car. The boys went to their bedroom to play while Sanchez cooked dinner.

Between 7:10 and 7:20 p.m., a neighbor heard Rick’s yelling expletives and threats like, “Don’t have me come down here and waste my [ __ ] time on this bullshit.” RX and Sanchez began arguing in the apartment with the yelling turning into screaming. The boys ran to the living room where RX and Sanchez were hitting each other.

 RX pushed Sanchez to the floor and continued punching her with his fists. Anthony and Marcus, who were little, tried to intervene to break up the fight, but RX pushed Marcus down and kept assaulting Sanchez. RX then grabbed a kitchen knife from a drawer and stabbed Sanchez multiple times while she tried to protect herself, suffering an instantly fatal stabbed wound to her neck that transected her upper cervical spinal column at the brain stem.

 A potentially fatal stab wound to her neck that transsected her right corateed artery. multiple other stab wounds, defensive wounds, blunt force injuries, and evidence of manual strangulation. Her cause of death was stab wounds of the neck, blunt force injuries of the head, and asphixia. Marcus ran to his bedroom closet and called 911, but dropped the phone when RX yanked the door open.

 Marcus grabbed the knife in self-defense. He had a cut on his hand, but RX never stopped. He chased him back to the living room. There, Anthony was standing next to the couch with blood on his face, asking Marcus to get help and begging RX to stop, but he didn’t hear the little children’s plea. RX pushed Marcus to the ground, held his head down, and stabbed him multiple times in the back of his neck.

 When Rick saw that Marcus was unresponsive, he pushed Anthony down next to Marcus and started stabbing him until he made a gargling noise notifying he was dead. While RX was still stabbing Anthony, Marcus tried to get up to go grab the phone. RX noticed, got on top of him, and began stabbing him again until Marcus played dead by imitating Anony’s gargling noise.

 Anony’s fatal wounds penetrated his skull and injured veins/ arteries. He had contusions. Marcus was stabbed 25 times but survived. After stabbing them all, Ricks washed the knife, showered, packed clothes, placed Isaiah in his crib, and fled in Sanchez’s car. Although Marcus was bleeding badly, he remained still because he was afraid RX would stab him again if he got up.

 Once confident that RX was gone, Marcus got up, looked out the window, saw his mother’s car was gone, and called 911 for help. The police arrived at 8:42 p.m. Officer Clayton Baxley heard Isaiah crying. Marcus let them in. Officers found two bodies and unharmed Isaiah. Marcus was airlifted to a nearby hospital while Isaiah was checked into a care home.

 RX called his cousin Tamara Buts who lived with her parents in Mansfield, Texas, telling her he did something bad and asking to speak to her father, Joseph Sanders. He told Sanders he messed up and killed Sanchez and the boys, asking them to get Isaiah from the Bedford department. When Buts urged Ricks to turn himself in, he stated he would die before he goes to jail.

 Buts then called 911 and police responded to the apartment. Rigs fled in Sanchez’s car, but was traced via family tips and bolo alerts for the vehicle and suspects to Oklahoma that night. Troopers located him using a cell phone ping and two units pulled him over. It was unclear whether RX was armed, but he didn’t put up a fight and troopers had him in custody in a matter of minutes.

 Police recovered the vehicle, bloody items, and forensic matches directly linking him to the homicide. Wix confessed to police saying, “I’m sorry about everything. I couldn’t take it anymore. I’m stressed. Nobody loves me. I’m not going to jail.” But he was detained in Garvin County, Oklahoma that night.

 In a video where he was being transferred back to Texas, his eyes were swollen and red. He told his father that he was beaten in jail post arrest by inmates, possibly jailhouse justice. Cedric Allen Rix’s trial took place in 2014 in the 371st District Court in Tarant County, Texas. The central pillar of the prosecution’s case was the overwhelming physical evidence of multiple fatal stab wounds on Sanchez and Anthony which killed them on the spot.

 Marcus survival testimony and 25 stab wounds. >> Where were you when that happened? I was going for >> pretty close to your mom. >> Yeah. >> He pushed you down. >> Yes. >> Then what happened? >> He stabbed me. >> Where did he stab you? >> My neck. >> Front of your neck or the back of your neck? >> Back. >> And how did how did he do that? >> He held my head down.

>> He he held your head down? >> Yes. >> So he held your head down with one hand? >> Yeah. >> And stabbed you with his other hand? >> Yes. Do >> you know about how many times he stabbed you? No. Was it once or was it a bunch of times? >> A bunch of times. >> Why did you leave you alone? >> Because I made a noise.

>> What noise did you make? >> The same noise Anthony made. >> What kind of noise was it? >> A garden noise. >> Why did you make that noise? >> Because when Anthony made it, he stabbed. >> Did you make that same noise hoping that you would quit stabbing you? >> Yes. the knife analysis, neighbor report, and RX’s multiple confessions to family and police proving capital murder.

 The jury also heard about RX’s prior criminal history, high school assaults on Tina Brown leading to arrests, repeated assaults on ex-wife Tashana Singleton, assaults on Tamara Partridge, and that of Jennifer Clark. The November 2012 assault on Sanchez established his escalating pattern of violence and dangerousness. Prosecutors portrayed him as a psychopath with a history of violence against women, emphasizing the heinous, atrocious, and cruel nature of the killings.

 On the defense side, his attorneys fought back, presenting mitigating factors and pleading for life over death. Ricks testified in his own defense, expressing remorse, but unable to fully explain his actions, stating he was sorry about everything. Ricks was convicted of capital murder on May 8th, 2014. After less than an hour of deliberation, the jury recommended the death penalty after 7 hours, and the judge imposed death for the murders of Roxan Sanchez and Anthony Figuroa.

 Ricks was 39 at the time of sentencing. Cedric Allan Ricks languished on death row for over 12 years where he reportedly showed remorse in the letters to his sons from death row statements and confessions undergoing a profound spiritual transformation. Ricks wrote of some of his regrets but offered little explanation for the violence he committed according to a book written by Rick’s childhood nextdoor neighbor LA Holtz.

 The book includes letters between Ricks and Holtz along with letters from RX to his sons titled These Dry Bones: Redemption from Death Row. In the book, he apologized and said, “Sometimes I wake up kicking and screaming for what I have done to you.” He wrote to his son saying, “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 used to be. His lawyers launched numerous appeals to reverse the verdict, challenging the effectiveness of his trial council for failing to adequately present evidence of his brain biology predisposing him to violence and racial discrimination in jury selection about the Batson claim.

where prosecutors used permpary strikes against two black prospective jurors under circumstances suggesting racial bias with notes revealing racially coded reasons and a white juror not struck despite similar characteristics. They also argued shackling violations and sought commutation to life without parole.

 But every one of his appeals was shot down, including motions to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, federal habius denials by the Fifth Circuit on November 4th, 2024. Petitions to the US Supreme Court were denied, and a final one by the US Supreme Court in early 2026, which rejected it without comment, though an application for stay highlighted due process violations tied to the Batson claim.

 Finally, on October 20th, 2025, a Tarant County judge scheduled RX’s execution for March 11th, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. Central time at the Huntsville unit in Texas, making it the state’s second execution of the year following a record number in previous years. The execution took place at the Huntsville unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville, Texas.

 Ricks awoke in his death watch cell at the Paluninsky unit before being transported to the Huntsville unit around 8:00 a.m. He did not request or meet with a personal spiritual adviser that morning. Ricks, aged 51, declined a special last meal, opting instead for the standard prison fair served to all inmates that day.

 No family members or supporters visited him that day. Reports suggest he had limited contact with loved ones in recent years. That evening, RX was strip searched, dressed in standard execution attire, and shackled. Medical staff inserted I do V lines into both arms. He was then moved to the execution chamber and strapped to the gurnie.

 During this time, witnesses for the state, including seven relatives of the victims, such as Marcus Figueroa, the 12-year-old survivor who was now 25 and bore visible scars on his neck from the 25 stab wounds, entered the viewing room. No witnesses were present on Rick’s behalf. At 6:00 p.m., the execution officially began.

 The curtain to the viewing room opened, revealing Rick’s already strapped to the gurnie with I do V lines inserted. He appeared calm and composed. The warden asked if he had any last words. RX, looking toward the victim’s family window, spoke directly to them. I’m sorry for taking Roxan and Anthony away from you all.

 I hope one day you can find forgiveness in your heart. I hope you’ll go in peace. His statement was delivered in a steady, remorseful tone without emotion or tears. He did not mention his own family or make any protests of innocence. At 6:02 p.m., the lethal injection commenced. Witnesses observed Rick’s taking deep, quick breaths initially, followed by snoring sounds as the drug took effect.

 He gurgled three times, a common reaction indicating the onset of unconsciousness and respiratory failure. There were no visible signs of pain, convulsions, or prolonged suffering. His body remained still after the initial breaths. Around 6:14 p.m., the warden performed a consciousness check by shaking Ricks and calling his name. There was no response.

 A medic entered the chamber to verify vital signs. This process took about 8 minutes, during which RX showed no movement or breathing. By 6:55 p.m., RX was officially pronounced dead by the on-site physician. The execution was described as routine and without complication by execution officials. That evening, the victim family members spoke briefly to the media.

 Marcus Figureroa, the survivor, described the execution as bittersweet closure, saying, “It’s been 13 years of pain, but seeing it end helps.” Roxan Sanchez’s relatives echoed relief, but highlighted ongoing trauma. No statements from Rick’s family were reported that day. This wraps up the chilling tale of Cedric Allen Ricks, executed for murdering Roxan Sanchez and Anthony Figuroa.

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