A Texas Man convicted of killing a pastor in his own church during a robbery, days after he was released from an Anger Management Program ordered by the judge, was put to death on Wednesday evening.
Steven Lawayne Nelson, 37, was declared dead at 6.50 pm after a LTHAN injection that was administered in a state fine in Huntsville.
Prior to the injection, Nelson repeatedly told his wife, who watched through a window at a short distance from him with a white service dog that she was allowed to bring in the witness area, that he loved her and that he was grateful and grateful, reported the associated press .
“It is what it is,” Nelson said during his chance of final words. “I’m not afraid. I have peace. Let’s drive, Warden. “
File photo of Texas’ death cell, prisoner Steven Lawayne Nelson in a visiting cage at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit outside Livingston, Texas, on December 5, 2012. (Michael Graczyk, file)
While the deadly dose of the calming Pentobarbital was given, Nelson told Helene Noa Dubois, who recently married him while he was in prison: “Let me go to sleep.” The medicine seemed to be in force while he said the word “love,” when he panted twice and seemed to try to hold his breath. His head, shoulders and arms vibrated a few seconds before all movement stopped. He was declared dead 24 minutes later.
Nelson was sentenced to death for the murder of 2011 of Reverend Clint Dobson, 28, who was beaten, strangled and suffocated with a plastic bag in Northpoye Baptist Church in Arlington. Nelson killed Dobson while he was in his office and write a sermon.
Nelson claimed that he had only served as a robbery and blamed two other men for killing Dobson. He said he waited about 25 minutes outside of the church before he went inside and saw that Dobson and church secretary Judy Elliott had been beaten. He insisted that 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 established by Elliott’s husband, the part -time music minister of the church, who did not immediately recognize her because she was so seriously beaten, the Associated Press reported.
Oklahoma executs man convicted of creepy murder of the 10-year-old girl
Steven Nelson was convicted of killing pastor Clint Dobson in his Arlington Church in 2011. (Obtained by KDFW)
Nelson was taken prisoner after he was shopped with shopping with the stolen credit cards of the victims, Fox Dallas reported.
Three days before killingNelson was released from an Anger Management program ordered by the court as part of a deal with public prosecutors in Dallas County after he was arrested for worsened attack on his girlfriend.
Family members of the victims refused to speak with reporters and previously published statements on Wednesday.
Steven Lawayne Nelson takes the witness stand to witness to his own defense in his capital murder process on Friday, October 5, 2012 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Joyce Marshall/Star-Telegram)
“As a family we chose to take this day to concentrate on the great memories we have of Clint instead of giving time to his murderer,” said the Van Dobson family in their statement. “Steven Nelson has changed our lives forever, but he has never kept our thoughts busy … We miss Clint every day. We miss his laughter and his humor, his advice and his love for us.”
Bradley Elliott, whose mother Judy survived the attack, said: “I hope Mr Nelson breathed his last breath today that he was greeted by the same loving and graceful savior who stood us through everything we were part of.” The Statement added: “Mr. Nelson, we forgive you and hope to see you when we are called at home from here.”
This photo shows a stretcher used in giving deadly injections to convicted prisoners in the death cell. (Sue Oogrocki, File)
Nelson’s lawyers appealed the conviction and claimed that he had poor legal representation during his trial, and said So Godmm Hellolo and Texas.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice did not immediately respond to a request for information about Nelson’s last meal.
Click here to get the Fox News app
This year’s implementation of Nelson is the second in the US and the first of four planned in Texas in the next three months.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
