A Texas man was executed Wednesday evening after being convicted of murdering a pastor in his own church during a robbery. He was released from a court-ordered anger management program just days before.
Steven Lawayne Nelson, 37, died at 6:50 p.m. local time after receiving a lethal injection at a state penitentiary in Huntsville.
Prior to the injection, Nelson told his wife, who was watching through a window nearby with a white service dog she was permitted to bring into the witness area, that he loved her and was thankful and grateful, according to the Associated Press.
Nelson said, “It is what it is,” when given the opportunity to say his final words. “I am not scared. I am at peace. “Let us ride, Warden.”
As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital was administered, Nelson told Helene Noa Dubois, whom he had recently married while in prison, “Let me go to sleep.” The drug appeared to take effect as he said the word “Love,” after which he gasped twice and appeared to try to hold his breath.
His head, shoulders, and arms trembled briefly before stopping completely. He was pronounced dead twenty-four minutes later.
Nelson was sentenced to death in 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 murdered Dobson while he was sitting in his office writing a sermon.
Nelson claimed to have only been a robbery lookout and blamed Dobson’s death on two other men. He said he waited outside the church for about 25 minutes before entering and discovering that Dobson and church secretary Judy Elliott had been beaten. He insisted that Dobson was still alive at the time.
Nelson claimed he stole Dobson’s laptop and that one of the other two men involved in the robbery gave him Elliott’s car keys and credit card. Elliott’s husband, the church’s part-time music minister, found the two victims but did not recognize her because she had been severely beaten, according to the Associated Press.
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 a statement. “Steven Nelson forever changed our lives, but he has never been on our minds…. We miss Clint every day. We miss his laughter and wit, as well as his advice and love for us.
Bradley Elliott, whose mother Judy survived the attack, said, “I hope that today, as Mr. Nelson took his last breath, he was greeted by the same loving and gracious Savior that has stood by us through all we have been a part of.” The press release continued: “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 received poor legal representation at trial, failing to challenge the alibis of the two other men and failing to present mitigating evidence of a troubled childhood in Oklahoma and Texas.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson informed Fox News Digital via email that condemned inmates no longer make last meal requests, but instead “choose from the menu that is available to all inmates at the Hunstsville Unit where the execution is carried out.”
Wednesday’s main courses were lemon pepper chicken and a cheeseburger, with a variety of sides and “swirl pudding” for dessert.
