TX Inmate Shares Last Words With Wife Before Execution

HUNTSVILLE, TX — A Texas man convicted of killing a Dallas-area pastor during a church robbery in 2011 was executed Wednesday. Steven Lawayne Nelson, 37, was the second U.S. execution this year and the first of four set in Texas over three months.

Nelson received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. CST at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

Nelson was convicted of murder for beating, strangling, and suffocating Rev. Clint Dobson, 28, with a plastic bag at NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington. The church’s secretary, 67-year-old Judy Elliott, was severely beaten but survived.

Just before the injection began Wednesday evening, the inmate repeatedly told his wife, watching from a nearby window, that he loved her and was deeply grateful.

"It is what it is," Nelson said, and told her to "enjoy life."

"I’m not scared. I’m at peace," Nelson added. "Let’s ride, Warden."

As the lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered, he turned to Dubois, who had recently married him while was in prison, and said, "Let me go to sleep."

As the drug took effect, he uttered the word "Love," then gasped twice and seemed to hold his breath.

His head, shoulders, and arms trembled briefly before he fell still. He was pronounced dead 24 minutes later.

Reporting from the Associated Press was used in this story.