A Tarrant County state district judge has set an execution date for a man who during a robbery suffocated an Arlington pastor by placing a plastic bag over the victim’s head.
Granting a motion filed by the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, Judge Steven Jumes on June 10 ordered Steven Nelson’s execution to take place on February 5. Jumes, who presides over the 485th District Court, also ordered the court clerk to issue a death sentence.
Nelson, 37, was convicted in October 2012 of capital murder in the asphyxiation killing of pastor, Clinton Dobson28, in his office at NorthPointe Baptist Church in north Arlington, while stealing a computer, credit cards and a vehicle from Dobson and church secretary Judy Elliott.
Elliott was beaten and survived.
Minutes after the official reading of the death penalty verdict, Nelson, who lived in Arlington, broke a sprinkler in his cell and caused black water to flood the courtroom.
Nelson was convicted in Criminal District Court No. 4 of capital murder in the death of Dobson, who on March 3, 2011, was also beaten and tied up.
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Nelson was later accused of using a blanket to strangle a mentally ill prisoner in his cell block.
Jumes noted that it was evident that Nelson had Has exhausted its avenues for relief in state and federal courts.
The prosecutor’s motion requested that the execution be scheduled for October 24, October 29 or October 30.
By selecting a February execution date, Judge Jumes gave Nelson’s defense attorneys time to develop arguments related to the sentencing phase of the trial, according to one of the defense attorneys, Lee Kovarsky.
Bill Ray and Steve Gordon, the defense attorneys who represented Nelson at trial, urged jurors to grant alternative life without a probation sentence and argued that Nelson was psychologically abandoned as a child. Nelson testified that two of the defendant’s friends killed Dobson while Nelson waited outside the church.
Nelson’s lover testified that the lover and Nelson went to a nightclub in Dallas the night after the murder. The jury also heard testimony from an acquaintance who said Nelson admitted to killing Dobson.
Prosecutors Bob Gill and Page Simpson played jury surveillance video that shows Nelson using Elliott’s credit cards at The Parks at Arlington mall to buy expensive Nike sneakers and a bright green Oscar the Grouch T-shirt. He also purchased $400 worth of jewelry at the mall.
A man testified that Nelson sold him Dobson’s laptop for $150 on the day of the murder and was driving a Mitsubishi Galant that matched the description of Elliott’s car that was stolen in the robbery.
Dobson’s DNA and Elliott’s DNA were found on Nelson’s shoes, and metal studs from Nelson’s belt were found at the crime scene.
