Man convicted in Texas pastor's killing gets death penalty.


Photo: AP Steven Lawayne Nelson. Nelson, found guilty of killing a pastor in his North Texas church because he wanted to steal a car, was sentenced to death Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The Rev. Clint Dobson was sitting in his church office writing a sermon when a convicted felon began scouring the neighborhood for a car to steal.

The felon honed in on the church, where investigators say he suffocated the young pastor and severely beat his secretary before fleeing in one of their cars. New details of Steven Lawayne Nelson's past — offenses that led up to what prosecutors called his most heinous crime — were revealed during a week-long hearing to decide Nelson's fate following his conviction last week of killing Dobson. On Tuesday, jurors chose the death penalty.

"It is hard for me to fathom that you did what you did for a car and a laptop and a phone," Dobson's father-in-law, Phillip Rozeman, said in a statement after the sentencing. "The world is going to miss a leader. It's sad to know all the people that won't be helped because Clint is not here."

Nelson suffocated Dobson, leaving him dead on the floor with a bag over his head and lying near his severely beaten secretary. Nelson had driven away in the secretary's car, then later sold Dobson's laptop and bought some items at a mall using the victims' credit cards.

Jurors had the option of sentencing Nelson to life in prison without parole. For a death sentence, jurors had to unanimously agree that Nelson posed a danger to society, that he intended to kill and that there were no mitigating circumstances to diminish his culpability.
The 25-year-old Nelson showed no reaction as his sentence was read. He was later heard yelling after he was taken to a holding cell, where he broke a sprinkler head, causing flooding in the courtroom shortly after most people had left.

Three days before the murder, Nelson had been released from a court-ordered anger-management program, part of a deal with Dallas County prosecutors after he was arrested for aggravated assault on his girlfriend. He earlier had served time behind bars for a two-year sentence for theft, and spent much of his teen years in juvenile facilities after committing various crimes.

Dobson had taken a considerably different life path. The 28-year-old had done missionary work and had big plans for NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington, about 15 miles west of Dallas. The young minister was known by friends and relatives as a generous, helpful person who also had a fun-loving side.

His widow, Laura Dobson, said she will continue to be her husband's voice and "be a reminder that good will always triumph evil." "I refuse to let you get the best of me," she told Nelson in a victim impact statement after the sentence. "You have wrecked so many lives ... that nobody will want to remember you after this."
Nelson had denied killing the minister, blaming two friends for the crime. He said he stayed outside and only came into the church to steal a laptop. He admitted stepping around Dobson and the secretary on the floor to get the laptop, but said they were still alive when he was there.

Blood from both victims was found on a pair of Nelson's shoes, and studs from his belt were found at the church, according to testimony. Prosecutor Bob Gill said Nelson's violence didn't stop as he awaited his murder trial, and that he fatally strangling an inmate with a blanket. Nelson hasn't been charged in that death.

"Now you know why the state decided to seek the death penalty," Gill told jurors. "That's all that can be done here. It could not be more clear." Defense attorneys asked jurors to spare Nelson's life, saying his mother neglected him, his father abused him and he was prescribed medication for attention deficit disorder. But Nelson never got the help he needed, even after he set his mother's bed on fire when he was 3, and never learned how to get along with others and not hurt people.

Referring to Nelson's childhood, defense attorney Bill Ray said the initial decisions "that put him on a track for permanent derailment were beyond his control, and if that's not a mitigating factor, I don't know what is."

Good riddance.

The death penalty is like a slap in the face to an intelligent mind that reminds us of how very ignorant and animalistic we still are as a species.

love and (forced) death, are two concepts that are hard to reconcile

So you say. There are plenty of intelligent minds that realize that it is the way humans have removed scum from the species since mankind began.

This animal would kill again.

would you provide Room and Board for that Thing?

Ya' gotta' love how his liar threw in the race card.

Too bad it will take years to sit his punk a s s into the chair.

Very good question.
It is a simple yes or no request?

"And another one bites the dust"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE




Convicted murderer Jonathan Green became the 10th Texas inmate to be put to death this year when he was given a lethal injection Wednesday.

Green, 44, was convicted of kidnapping and killing a 12-year-old girl from her home in 2000. He took the girl to his home, strangled and sexually assaulted her, and then buried her in his backyard.

Detectives arrived and questioned him, then left to get a search warrant. During that time he dug up and moved the body inside his house, where detectives found it when they returned. He then denied involvement in the killing, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Wednesday, his legal team made pleas to the 5th District Court of Appeals to stay Green's execution, delaying the time of death from 6 p.m. until close to midnight, when his execution order would have expired. The appeals failed, however, and Green was given the lethal injection around 10:30 p.m.

Green told the warden that he would not have any final words before his death Wednesday night, but soon changed his mind, according to the Houston Chronicle.

"I'm an innocent man. I never killed anyone. Y'all are killing an innocent man," he said, and then looked down at the injection in his arm. "It's hurting me bad."

He was declared dead around 10:45 p.m.

Robert Wayne Harris: Mass Killing

"I want to tell ya'll, know that I love you," said Robert Wayne Harris, 40, before he was executed last week.

"Billy, I love you, English, Hart and Eloise. Dwight, take care of Dwight. I'm going home, I'm going home. I'll be all right, don't worry. I love ya'll. God bless and the Texas Rangers, Texas Rangers," he said.

Harris was convicted of a 2002 mass killing in which he opened fire on people at a car wash where he had worked. Harris had been fired from the car wash three days before the shooting, in March 2002, and returned to his place of employment to kill his former coworkers. Five people were killed. He was put to death on Sept. 20.[/]

http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/ht_adams_beunka_cc_120924_wb.jpg

Beunka Adams, 29, was convicted of a 2002 robbery and murder and was put to death in April of this year. He was found guilty of entering a convenience store, robbing a 24-year-old man, shooting him in the head and then attempting to kidnap, rob and sexually assault two women. He then fled the scene with money.

"First, I want to let my mom know not to cry. There is no reason to cry, everybody dies. Everybody has their time, don't worry about me. I'm strong. To my family: my old man, my kids, daddy is sorry. I love each and every one of you. I'll be looking for you. To my wife, I love you. The last two years have been the best. All my kids, mom, nieces and nephews, I am proud of all of ya'll. I love each and every one of ya'll. I really love ya'll."

Jesse Joe Hernandez was given the death penalty last March for the murder of an 11-month-old baby in 2001. Hernandez was babysitting the child and the child's older sister when he hit both of the kids with a flashlight. The girl survived, but the 11-month-old died.

Hernandez, 47, was one of many prisoners to comment on how the chemicals injected into his body felt as the state was executing him.

"Tell my son I love him very much. God bless everybody. Continue to walk with God. Go Cowboys! Love ya'll man. Don't forget the T-ball. Ms. Mary, thank you for everything that you've done. You too, Brad, thank you. I can feel it, taste it, not bad."

George Rivas, 41, escaped from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, robbed a sporting goods store at gunpoint and killed a police officer who responded to the crime scene. He was captured, found guilty and sentenced to death. He told the world that he was "ready to go" when he was executed last February.

"Yes, I do. First of all for the Aubrey Hawkins family, I do apologize for everything that happened. Not because I am here, but for closure in your hearts. I really believe that you deserve that. To my wife, Cheri, I am so grateful you're in my life. I love you so dearly. Thank you to my sister and dear friend Katherine Cox, my son and family, friends and family. I love you so dearly.

"To my friends, all the guys on the row, you have my courtesy and respect. Thank you to the people involved and to the courtesy of the officers. I am grateful for everything in my life. To my wife, take care of yourself. I will be waiting for you. I love you. God Bless. I am ready to go."

Silence is golden.

again, I love that Texas death penalty.

Unless you were one of the 300 former death row inmates exonerated by DNA within the last decade. 300 people came within hours of death because the judicial system failed. What is even stranger is what were the prosucutors, judges and police doing that these men were all exonerated. Jeffrey Dahmer, killed many, he killed his victims, had sex with the bodies, cooked his victims, then eat his victims. Then was sent to prison. No death penalty. Fortunately the savage was given the death penalty by a fellow inmate. Justice was served. Some do deserve the death penalty, BUT 300 EXONERATIONS THROUGH DNA SCARES THE CRAP OUT OF ME, THAT MEANS THAT OUR JUDICIAL SYSTEM AND OUR SO CALLED CIVILIZED SOCIETY IS IN NEED OF DIVINE GUIDENCE. I sure would hate to be accused of a crime while innocent, 300? Thats alot.

i don't care. Akiller is akiller.DNA don't lie.

Any intelligent mind knows that it is not intelligent to condone death whether it is done by one hand or the state.

It is ignorant and barbaric to condone death of another human.

I will not put myself in the same ignorant state of mind as a killer by justifying death.

You are stating as fact what an intelligent would do when the only possible thing you could have is an opinion.

Any intelligent mind knows the difference between a fact and an opinion.