A Texas man convicted of killing a pastor in his own church during a robbery, days after being released from a court-ordered anger management program, was put to death Wednesday evening.
Steven Lawayne Nelson, 37, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. local time following a lethan injection that was administered at a state penitentiary in Huntsville.
Prior to the injection, Nelson repeatedly told his wife, who was watching through a window a short distance from him with a white service dog she was allowed to bring into the witness area, that he loved her and that he was thankful and grateful, the Associated Press reported.
“It is what it is,” Nelson said during his opportunity for final words. “I’m not scared. I’m at peace. Let’s ride, Warden.”
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As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital was being given, Nelson told Helene Noa Dubois, who married him recently while he was in prison, “Let me go to sleep.” The drug appeared to take effect as he said the word, “Love,” then he gasped twice and appeared to try to hold his breath. His head, shoulders and arms trembled for a few seconds before all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead 24 minutes later.
Nelson was sentenced to death for the 2011 murder of Rev. Clint Dobson, 28, who was beaten, strangled and suffocated with a plastic bag inside NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington. Nelson killed Dobson as he was sitting in his office writing a sermon.
Nelson claimed that he had only served as a robbery lookout and blamed two other men for killing Dobson. He said he waited outside the church for about 25 minutes before going in and seeing that Dobson and church secretary Judy Elliott had been beaten. He insisted Dobson was still alive at the time.
Nelson said he took Dobson’s laptop and that one of the other two men who participated in the robbery gave him Elliott’s car keys and credit cards. The two victims were located by Elliott’s husband, the church’s part-time music minister, who did not immediately recognize her because she had been so severely beaten, the Associated Press reported.
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Nelson was captured after going on a shopping spree using the victims’ stolen credit cards, Fox Dallas reported.
Three days before the killing, Nelson had been released from a court-ordered anger management program as part of a deal with Dallas County prosecutors after he was arrested for aggravated assault on his girlfriend.
Relatives of the victims declined to speak with reporters and released statements earlier on Wednesday.
“As a family, we have chosen to take this day to focus on the great memories we have of Clint rather than giving time to his killer,” Dobson’s family said in their statement. “Steven Nelson forever changed our lives, but he has never occupied our minds…. We miss Clint every day. We miss his laughter and his wit, his advice and his love for us.”
Bradley Elliott, whose mother Judy survived the attack, said: “I hope that today as Mr. Nelson took his last breath that he was greeted by the same loving and gracious Savior that has stood by us through all we have been a part of.” The statement added: “Mr. Nelson, we forgive you and hope to see you when we are called home from here.”
Nelson’s attorneys appealed the conviction, claiming he had bad legal representation at his trial, saying they failed to challenge the alibis of the two other men and didn’t present mitigating evidence of a troubled childhood in Oklahoma and Texas.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice did not immediately respond to a request for information about Nelson’s last meal.
Nelson’s execution is the second in the U.S. this year and the first of four scheduled in Texas over the next three months.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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