HOUSTON — He encountered a man from North Texas to implement Wednesday for stabbing his girlfriend and her 8-year-old son nearly 13 years ago.
Cedric Rex He was sentenced to death for the May 2013 murders of 30-year-old Roxanne Sanchez and her son, Anthony Figueroa, in their apartment in Bedford, a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Marcos Figueroa, Sanchez’s 12-year-old son, was injured during the attack.
Rex, 51, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection after 6 p.m. CST at the state prison in Huntsville, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Houston.
His lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution, arguing that prosecutors violated Ricks’ constitutional rights by excluding potential jurors based on race. Rex’s previous appeals in which he claimed ineffective counsel and called for evidence in the case to be suppressed were dismissed.
In a 1986 ruling known as Batson v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court held that excluding jurors because of their race violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
“At trial, Ricks actually suspected that the state had singled out minority jurors to exclude them from the jury pool,” Ricks’ lawyers said in their petition to the Supreme Court.
Ricks’ lawyers said notes kept by prosecutors during the jury selection process that were not obtained until 2021 show prosecutors targeted minority jurors.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office said court records show prosecutors’ decisions in jury selection were “race-neutral,” and lower courts have already concluded that prosecutors’ actions were not discriminatory.
The district attorney’s office said Rex “brutally stabbed his girlfriend, Roxanne, and her eight-year-old son, Anthony, to death.” “The public has a strong interest in implementing Rex’s ruling.”
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied Ricks’ request for a 90-day reprieve or commutation of his death sentence.
Prosecutors said Rex and Sanchez were fighting in their apartment when Sanchez’s two sons from a previous marriage — Anthony and Marcos Figueroa — tried to break up the fight.
Rex retrieved a knife from the kitchen and began stabbing Sanchez several times, according to court records.
Marcos Figueroa ran to his bedroom closet and tried to call the police. After killing Anthony Figueroa, Rex resumed stabbing Marcos Figueroa, who survived the attack by playing dead. Rex did not hurt his 9-month-old son, Isaiah, according to court records.
Rex fled and was later arrested in Oklahoma.
During his trial, Rex testified that he had anger issues and was defending himself against the boys after they defended their mother.
“I felt upset explaining my anger,” said Rex, who also apologized for the killings. “Things happen. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I wish I could bring them back now, for example.”
One day before the stabbing, Rex appeared in court after being accused of assaulting Sanchez during a previous incident.
If the death sentence is carried out, Ricks will be the second person executed this year in Texas and the sixth person in the country. Historically, Texas has carried out more executions than any other state.
Charles “Sonny” BurtonA 75-year-old prisoner in Alabama was scheduled to be executed on Thursday. But Alabama Governor Kay Ivey on Tuesday commuted his death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Burton had been sentenced to death for the fatal shooting during a 1991 robbery even though he did not pull the trigger.
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