Steven Lawayne Nelson
2012 mugshot of Steven Lawayne Nelson
Born	(1987-02-18) February 18, 1987 (age 37) Oklahoma, U.S.
Motive	Robbery
Conviction(s)	Capital murder
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	1 confirmed, 1 suspected
Date	March 3, 2011
Location(s)	Arlington, Texas
Imprisoned at	Allan B. Polunsky Unit

Steven Lawayne Nelson (born February 18, 1987) is an American convicted murderer on death row for the 2011 murder of 28-year-old Arlington pastor Clinton "Clint" Dobson in Texas. Nelson was found guilty of murdering Dobson by smothering him to death during a robbery bid at an Arlington church on March 3, 2011, and therefore sentenced to death on October 16, 2012.^[1]

Nelson, who allegedly murdered a fellow inmate while in prison, protested his innocence and claimed that he only acted as lookout while pinpointing two of his friends as the real murderers of Dobson, and claimed that the alibi of both his friends were not sufficiently rebutted by his trial counsel. Nelson's grounds of appeal were rejected, and both his conviction and sentence were consequently upheld. After exhausting his appeals, Nelson is currently scheduled to be executed on February 5, 2025.^[2]

Steven Lawayne Nelson was born in Oklahoma, U.S., on February 18, 1987. Nelson, who had a brother and sister (who was deaf), was a victim of childhood abuse and neglect. Nelson's mother, left him at home by himself, sometimes 3 to 4 days and never paid much attention to her children, while Nelson's father was often absent in his life, and he was abusive towards his children and wife.^[3][4] Nelson studied up to the 11th grade in school.^[5]

At the age of three, Nelson went to set fire on his mother's bed who was in the living room, to cause himself harm. Nelson had several run-ins with Oklahoma's juvenile authorities at the age of six, committing property crimes, burglaries, thefts and aggravated assault. Despite attempts by officials to intervene through counseling and probation, he was incarcerated in a high-risk juvenile detention center at a young age due to his continued involvement in felonies.^[3][6]

At some point in his childhood, Nelson and his family moved to Texas and settled down in Tarrant County. However, Nelson continued to commit crimes and therefore tried in the Texas juvenile courts. When Nelson was 14, he was arrested for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, burglary and criminal trespassing, and sentenced to serve an indeterminate term in a juvenile prison by the Tarrant County juvenile court, a rare case for property crimes at his age. Originally sentenced to nine months at the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), Nelson spent over three and a half years there due to continued infractions, including four high-level disciplinary hearings. By the age of 20, Nelson had been released on parole twice while under the radar of the juvenile system but often violated his parole terms each and every time he was free.^[3][7][8]

Nelson's criminal activity extended into his adulthood. In 2005, at 18 years old, Nelson was arrested for driving a stolen car. Two years later, in November 2007, Nelson stole a laptop from a Walmart by hiding it in his pants while pretending to be a store associate. The following week, he was caught again at a different Walmart in Arlington for stealing boots by wearing them out of the store without paying.^[3]

After he was released from state jail in 2010, Nelson assaulted his then live-in girlfriend and he was therefore indicted for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after the victim filed a complaint against him. 3 days later, his girlfriend filed a non-prosecution affidavit to drop the charges but because his extensive record, the DA denied it. He was subsequently placed on probation and sent to a ninety-day program at the Intermediate Sanctions Facility (ISF).^[3][9]

On March 3, 2011, 24-year-old Steven Nelson allegedly committed the murder of a pastor in a church at Arlington, Texas.^[10]

On that fateful day, Nelson, who was still on probation for the assault of his then girlfriend, barged into the NorthPointe Baptist Church, where two members of the church were present at the time of the crime. One of them was 28-year-old Clinton "Clint" Dobson, a pastor of the church, and 69-year-old Judy Elliott, a secretary working at the church itself. With an intention to commit robbery, Steven allegedly attacked both Dobson and Elliott.^[11][3]

For Dobson, he was assaulted before a computer extension cord was used to strangle him, and subsequently smothered with a plastic bag. The brutal assault and suffocation resulted in the death of Dobson. As for Elliott, she was severely beat her up, causing Elliott to suffer internal bleeding in her brain and traumatic injuries to her face, head, arms, legs, and back; but Elliott was still alive despite this. After leaving Elliott for dead, Nelson stole Dobson's laptop, a cellphone, Elliot's credit cards, and Elliot's car. Nelson later used the credit cards to purchase new clothes and jewelry, and also sold the laptop for money.^[3][12]

Meanwhile, Laura Dobson, unable to reach her husband by phone, contacted Jake Turner, the church's part-time music minister. Turner agreed to go to the church and then called Judy Elliott's husband, John, who quickly drove to the location. Upon his arrival, John used his passcode to enter the church and upon entry, John noticed Dobson's office in disarray and saw a woman, severely beaten and lying on the floor, whom he didn't initially recognize as his wife. However, John did not see Dobson, who was lying on the other side of the desk. John immediately called the police, who later arrived, and the body of Dobson was in turn discovered by Arlington police officer Jesse Parrish. Dobson was pronounced dead at the scene, while Elliott was rushed to hospital, and despite the grim forecast by doctors and a heart attack during her hospitalization, Elliott survived her injuries, and she was released from the hospital two weeks later and underwent five months of therapy and rehabilitation. A permanent combination of mesh, screws, and other metal components were used to support Elliott's face. Elliott was able to declare that she saw more than one person that day.^[3][13]

An autopsy was later conducted by Dr Nizam Peerwani, a medical examiner for Tarrant County, and results showed that Dobson's injuries were likely caused during a violent struggle, during which he tried to protect himself from blows possibly delivered by the butt of a firearm. Two of the wounds on his forehead appeared to have been caused by the computer monitor stand in the office. Dr. Peerwani stated that the injuries indicated Dobson was likely standing when he was first hit in the head and was struck in the back of his head as he fell. Dr Peerwani certified that the cause of death was strangulation, caused by the plastic bag covering Dobson's face, which suffocated him.^[3][14]

A memorial service was held at the church in remembrance of Dobson. More than 200 mourners were present at the service, and many remembered the kindness Dobson shown and did to the community.^[15]

Police investigations, which classified the case of Dobson's death as murder, eventually linked Nelson to the murder. Nelson, who was supposed to report to his probation officer on the date of the murder but failed to do so, was apprehended by police after a warrant of arrest was issued in his case.^[16] The police uncovered the belongings of both Elliott and Dobson in Nelson's possession, and there were bloodstains found on the shoes of Nelson, and forensic tests confirmed that the DNA of the bloodstains belonged to both Dobson and Elliott. Similarly, the fingerprints extracted from the scene of crime matched to those of Nelson.^[3][17]

After his arrest, Nelson was charged with capital murder, an offence that carries either life without parole or the death penalty under Texas state law. A second man, 19-year-old Anthony Gregory Springs, was also arrested and charged, but Springs was later released after the prosecution dropped the murder charge against him.^[18]

After his indictment, Steven Nelson was remanded in a Tarrant County jail while awaiting trial for the murder of Clint Dobson. During his remand, Nelson had repeatedly exhibited violent and disruptive behavior and flouted the rules. He committed several serious infractions, such as breaking a telephone in the visitation booth, damaging prison property and threatening an officer. He also got into physical altercations with prison guards regularly (including one such incident where three guards had to restrain Nelson to stop him).^[19]

However, the most serious incident occurred on March 19, 2012, when Nelson allegedly committed the murder of a mentally-ill prisoner. On that day itself, according to sources, the prisoner in question, Jonathan Holden, who was incarcerated for theft, had allegedly muttered a derogatory racial term that was directed to African Americans, and it angered some of the prisoners (specifically those of African American descent). Although Holden was not sharing a cell with Nelson as they were house individually, Nelson, who was also African American, was probably similarly angered.^[3][20]

After this incident, Nelson lured Holden to the bars of his cell, and brandished a noose which he fashioned out of blankets. Nelson reportedly told Holden to hang himself in a fake suicide attempt, so as to earn himself a transfer to another part of the prison. Holden complied by moving to the cell bars, and after looping the noose around Holden's neck, Nelson tightened the blanket by placing his feet against the bars and pulling on the blanket with both hands, and pulled Holden against the wall and almost off his feet. Holden died four minutes later, and according to his other cellmates, Nelson allegedly did a "celebration dance" and even used a broom as a guitar after murdering Holden. Although these facts were never verified, Nelson did call the security to help Holden. ^[3][20][21]

The death of Holden was later brought to light, and due to his alleged involvement in the killing of Holden, Nelson was transferred to another cell in the same hallway as they were already in solitary confinement and segregated from the rest of the prison's general population. Still, Nelson continued to exhibit misbehaviours despite being isolated from the other inmates.^[3]

In 2014, two years after Holden was killed, Holden's family filed a civil rights lawsuit against Tarrant County over the death of Holden. The family eventualy reached a settlement and Tarrant County has agreed to pay $350,000.^[22][23]

On October 1, 2012, Steven Nelson officially stood trial for the murder of Clint Dobson. Nelson was indicted on one count of capital murder and another count of attempted capital murder by a Tarrant County jury.^[24][25] The prosecution expressed their intent to pursue the death penalty for Nelson.^[26]

During the trial, the prosecution argued that Nelson was the lone killer in the case of Dobson's death. They argued that the forensic evidence had effectively placed Nelson in the scene of crime and cited the evidence of him having stolen the belongings of the victims, sold the laptop of Dobson and used the victims' credit cards for shopping. The evidence against Nelson was mostly circumstantial, and poorly based on facts, but the prosecution urged the jury to convict Nelson based on the circumstantial evidence that strongly incriminated him as the perpetrator of the murder, and they described Nelson as a "predator" who committed a terrible crime for the victims' valuables.^[3][27][28]

In his defence, Nelson testified that he was not the only one involved in the murder, and pinpointed his two friends, Anthony Springs and Claude Jefferson, as the ones who murdered Dobson. Nelson claimed that he, Springs and Jefferson entered the church together and he stole Dobson's laptop, Elliott's keys, and Elliott's credit cards before leaving, and added that both Jefferson and Springs were together with the victims, assaulting them while he was outside acting as a lookout. He claimed that he was only guilty of robbing the victim but denied killing Dobson or beating Elliott. However, Jefferson and Springs had different alibis at the time of the murder. Jefferson said he was in his university attending a chemistry test (which was never confirmed as Nelson's lawyer questioned the professor and they stated there was no chemistry test that day), while Springs' phone was over 30 miles away at the time of the murder (even if he had multiple cellphones and SIM cards). Nelson explained the presence of the victims' DNA on his shoe or the discovery of his broken belt pieces by stating he crawled under a table to grab a laptop bag at the murder site.^[3][29][30]

On October 8, 2012, the jury found Nelson guilty of both capital murder and attempted capital murder. A sentencing trial commenced thereafter to decide whether Nelson should face the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.^[31][32]

During the final submissions, the prosecution sought the death penalty for Nelson, stating that Nelson had a long criminal history since his childhood and also brought up evidence of his multiple incidents of rule-breaking and prison violence, including the killing of Jonathan Holden. They argued that Nelson was a lingering menace to society based on his lack of compliance to prison regulation and rehabilitative efforts, and multiple crimes prior to the murder of Dobson, and he deserved the ultimate penalty for his alleged heinous conduct of taking Dobson's life and assaulting Elliott.^[33][3]

The defence, however, argued for a life sentence. They brought forward Nelson's troubled childhood and learning difficulties, among other mitigating factors in favour of life imprisonment for their client. A forensic psychiatrist testified that Nelson had both attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and antisocial personality disorder.^[3][34]

In their victim impact statements, Dobson's family and friends spoke of the good deeds which Dobson done during his lifetime as a pastor. Dobson's widow Laura stated that her husband would be remembered fondly for his kindness and sense of humor, and condemned Nelson for his atrocities, stating that no one would remember him for destroying the lives of his victims. Dobson's father-in-law, Phillip Rozeman, said in his victim impact statement he would never understand the terrible things Nelson did for a laptop and credit cards, similarly reprimanding Nelson for his crimes.^[35]

On October 16, 2012, 25-year-old Steven Lawayne Nelson was sentenced to death by Judge Mike Thomas, after all 12 jurors unanimously agreed to impose the death penalty.^[36] Reportedly, after his sentencing, Nelson flooded the courtroom with black fire-retardant liquid by breaking a fire sprinkler, in retaliation towards the judge and jury for sentencing him to death.^[37] Even after the end of his trial, Nelson continued to maintain his innocence in an interview with the Associated Press, and acknowledged he had anger problems but denied he was a murderer.^[38]

After he was sentenced to death, Nelson was transferred to the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, where he was incarcerated on death row for the next decade. During this period, Nelson appealed against his death sentence.^[3]

On April 15, 2015, Nelson's direct appeal was dismissed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.^[3][39][40]

On March 29, 2017, District Judge John H. McBryde of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas rejected Nelson's appeal.^[41]

On March 12, 2020, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld McBryde's ruling and turned down Nelson's appeal.^[42]

On June 30, 2023, a second appeal from Nelson was again rejected by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.^[43]

After spending close to 12 years on death row, Nelson received his death warrant, and in the execution order, which was signed by Judge Steven Jumes on June 10, 2024. The sentence is scheduled to be carried out on February 5, 2025.^[44][45][46]

On November 15, 2024, a protest rally was held by a group of death penalty opponents to protest against Nelson's impending execution.^[47]

• Capital punishment in Texas
• List of death row inmates in Texas
• List of people scheduled to be executed in the United States