In what could be the highest-profile criminal trial in years in Tarrant County, an ex-convict will go on trial on capital murder charges Monday in the suffocation death of a beloved Arlington pastor.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Steven Lawayne Nelson, 25, in the death of Clint Dobson, 28, during an apparent robbery gone bad on March 3, 2011.The brutal nature of the crime -- and the fact that it happened inside the church building -- shook members of the NorthPointe Baptist Church in north Arlington and others in the community, and its aftermath is still being felt.Prosecutor Bob Gill has declined to comment about the case, but details that surfaced after the killing depicted Nelson as an angry young career criminal who went on a shopping spree with credit cards stolen during the robbery and then laughed and bragged about the killing.Defense attorneys Bill Ray and Steve Gordon have likewise declined to comment about the case and have asked the judge, unsuccessfully, to move the trial outside of Tarrant County because of extensive pretrial publicity. Nelson has pleaded not guilty.Security is expected to be very tight in state District Judge Mike Thomas' courtroom, with additional sheriff's deputies brought in to keep a close watch on the potentially volatile defendant. In addition to being charged with capital murder and attempted capital murder in the church killing, Nelson has been charged with assaulting a jailer and is a suspect in the hanging death of a mentally ill inmate in the Tarrant County Jail.Talented young pastorDobson was an up-and-coming young pastor who had worked to build NorthPointe Baptist, originally a mission offshoot of First Baptist Church of Arlington, into a full-fledged church serving north Arlington.Dobson and his assistant, Judy Elliott, who is in her 60s, had been working in the church that day in March at 2001 Brown Blvd. when a family member became worried that they couldn't be reached. A family member and a friend went by the church to check on them and found the door locked. They peered into a window and spotted somebody lying on the floor. The police were summoned, and the pair were found inside.Dobson had been beaten and then smothered with a plastic bag. Elliott had been beaten and left for dead but managed to survive, according to police reports.Elliott's car and other items were missing.About the same time police were descending on NorthPointe Baptist, two young men identified as Nelson and an acquaintance were seen using Elliott's credit cards.Two other friends told police that the pair laughed about Dobson's death after seeing a television news report that evening.Nelson was arrested a few days later at a town home where his mother lived, just three blocks from the church. The acquaintance, Anthony Gregory Springs, 20, was also arrested but told police he had joined Nelson later that day and was not involved in the killing. A grand jury declined to indict Springs in the killing but charged him with an unrelated aggravated robbery.Church members described Dobson as a talented young pastor who felt a calling to the ministry while attending Baylor University in Waco.Long criminal historyNelson had been released from a court-ordered anger-management program just three days before the killing.The program was part of a deal with Dallas County prosecutors that got Nelson deferred adjudication probation for the aggravated assault of his girlfriend, who later declined to cooperate with authorities.The assault charge came shortly after he had been released from state prison after serving time on a two-year sentence for theft.The charges were among a string of crimes on Nelson's record dating back to 2001, when he was still a juvenile. But the early crimes had been property crimes and had not been violent, Dallas prosecutors said.The allegations of violence, however, continued even after he landed in the Tarrant County Jail awaiting trial in the Dobson killing.In December, he was charged with striking a jailer with the back of his hand, and a jail employee told the Star-Telegram he had threatened to get even by harming a guard or another inmate.The hanging death of inmate Jonathan Holden, 30, in March has been linked to Nelson, although charges have not been filed against him in the case.Testimony about those allegations would not surface in the capital murder trial until the punishment phase, if Nelson is convicted.Taking comfortThe trial is expected to last about two weeks, and the jury has already been selected after a laborious six-week questioning period.Church members told the Star-Telegram in March, the anniversary of the killing, that they were still struggling with the death but that it had drawn them closer together as a church.On a church Facebook page, Pray for NorthPointe Baptist Church, a posting in March urged parishioners to take comfort that "this world of tears, pain and evil has been exchanged for a land of joy, peace and perfection."A more recent posting, in March, quotes from John 16:33: "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."Dianna Hunt, 817-390-7084Twitter: @DiannaHuntHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
