Steven Nelson, convicted of killing pastor inside church, to be executed after failed appeals

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Wednesday, February 05, 2025

Some 13 years after he was sentenced to loss of life for the grisly homicide of Texas Rev. Clint Dobson inside his church in 2011, Steven Nelson maintains his innocence and mentioned the late pastor’s church rejected his efforts to contact Dobson’s household days earlier than he’s scheduled to die by deadly injection Wednesday.

“My basis may need been cracked 13 years in the past however my basis is entire now. I am not the monster they are saying that I’m,” Nelson mentioned in an interview with NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield.

Nelson was convicted of suffocating Dobson in March 2011 when the pastor was simply 28, in keeping with The Related Press. He additionally reportedly beat Dobson’s 69-year-old secretary, Judy Elliot, so badly that she suffered reminiscence issues and a damaged jaw. Prosecutors painted him as a “predator” who compelled Dobson and Elliott to tie one another up earlier than they have been suffocated and battered.

Despite the fact that blood from each victims was discovered on Nelson’s sneakers and studs from his belt have been found on the crime scene, Nelson blamed two pals for the crime and claimed he was only a lookout.

“Throughout that trial, they solely did floor stuff. They did not examine my different two co-defendants. They did not examine something,” Nelson claimed.

“Proper earlier than trial, I requested the DA, can I take a lie detector check? He advised me ‘no.’ He mentioned I used to be a[n] straightforward conviction. I wish to say that each one the proof, the brand new proof that my trial legal professionals did not current, it exhibits that I didn’t kill anyone. It additionally exhibits that the judicial system is made so that you can lose in any respect prices, it doesn’t matter what,” he mentioned.

In response to AP, investigators say that the 2 different males had alibis, with one having telephone data inserting him over 30 miles away from the place the incident occurred. An indication-in sheet confirmed the opposite man in a chemistry class on the time. Nelson appealed his conviction, claiming his legal professionals did not do sufficient to problem the alibis of the 2 different males. His appeals and request for a keep of execution have been denied. This week, attorneys requested the U.S. Supreme Court docket intervene in Nelson’s case. 

Proof towards Nelson included a surveillance video exhibiting him driving Elliott’s automotive and utilizing her bank cards. 

When requested throughout his interview with NewsNation what he would say to the church secretary who survived, Nelson mentioned he would apologize.

“I’d apologize for the position that I performed though I used to be not the one that assaulted her. It nonetheless hurts to today that I could not do nothing on the time. I preserve considering, what if that was considered one of my relations,” he famous.

He mentioned he has been searching for to make amends with Dobson’s household, however the church has blocked his outreaches. 

“I wrote a letter to them, however the church didn’t [accept] the letter. That basically damage me, you already know, since you are a corporation of Christ and there is at all times redemption and a second probability,” he argued. “Folks do deserve second probabilities. I am not a misplaced trigger. I am not past assist. I am not damaged.”

Despite the fact that he has been accused of one other homicide whereas locked up, Nelson believes he deserves a second probability.

Throughout Nelson’s 2012 trial, Dobson’s widow, Laura Dobson, joined Elliott and different family and friends within the courtroom to share impression statements after the decision was reached.

“Nobody desires to recollect you,” she advised Nelson. “However they’ll at all times bear in mind Clint. … I vow to be his voice and keep it up his legacy, that good will at all times trump evil.”

Clint Dobson’s dad and mom, Rod and Sharon Dobson, additionally advised Nelson how he robbed the world of man.

“He was beneficiant of coronary heart, fixed of religion and joyful of spirit,” Sharon Dobson mentioned, studying the epitaph now on her son’s grave. “I want you possibly can have recognized him.”

Dennis R. Wiles, pastor of First Baptist Arlington, the dad or mum church of the now-shuttered Northpointe Baptist Church, didn’t instantly reply to calls from The Christian Put up for remark Wednesday. In a press release after Nelson’s loss of life sentence in 2012, he voiced respectful help for the courtroom’s resolution.

“We have now requested God for the reality to be recognized and for justice to be served. Because the Bible teaches us, God has positioned the civil authority in our midst in order that harmless folks can dwell in freedom with out worry and in order that responsible offenders might be appropriately punished,” Wiles wrote.

“This trial has been performed with an unbelievable degree of professionalism and integrity. A jury comprised of members from our group has reached a verdict based mostly on proof introduced in a courtroom of regulation. We now can confidently say that justice has been served, and we’ll help the choice of this courtroom.”