‘Let’s ride, warden.’ Young Arlington minister’s killer executed in Texas death chamber
.JPG "Steven Nelson took the witness stand to testify in his own defense in the brutal suffocation death of Arlington pastor Clint Dobson. Surrounded by sheriff’s deputies and with his shackles concealed from jurors, Nelson testified on Oct. 5, 2012.")
Pastor Clinton Dobson put up a fight before he was knocked unconscious by blows to the head inside his Arlington church office.
The violent thwacks, however, were not fatal. A plastic bag killed Dobson after it was placed tightly over his head. Dobson’s last breath sucked plastic into his mouth, a pathologist testified at the capital murder trial of Steven Nelson, the man who a Tarrant County jury would find killed Dobson in a robbery.
Nelson, whom the jury condemned in 2012 to die, was executed on Wednesday night with a dose of pentobarbital as he was strapped to a gurney.
As the solution flowed into both of his arms, Nelson at first trembled, then died in silence with his eyelids, on which dollar signs are tattooed, closed.
A doctor approached, bent toward Nelson’s body and pressed and withdrew a stethoscope.
“6:50,” the physician said in the death chamber at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit.
“6:50,” a person repeated the time of death.
Nelson’s face was covered with a white sheet. The ends of his hair peeked from the fabric.
His last statement avoided the crime and was focused on his love for his wife, who watched Nelson die through a window.
Helene Noa Dubois held up a service dog to the glass as Nelson spoke.
“Know I am not scared. It’s cold as (expletive) in here. But I’m at peace. I’m ready to be at home. Let’s ride, warden.”
The pastor, 28-year-old Dobson, was slain 14 years ago in his office at NorthPointe Baptist Church in north Arlington. Nelson stole a computer, credit cards and car from Dobson and church secretary Judy Elliott, according to evidence presented at the trial.
Elliott was bludgeoned and survived. She died last year of a natural cause.
Nelson also was accused of using a blanket to strangle a mentally ill inmate on their cellblock at the Tarrant County Jail while awaiting trial.
Bill Ray and Steve Gordon, the defense attorneys who at trial represented Nelson, urged jurors to hand down the alternative life without parole sentence and argued that Nelson was abandoned psychologically as a child. Nelson testified that two of the defendant’s friends killed Dobson while Nelson was outside the church.
The jury also heard testimony from an acquaintance who said Nelson admitted killing Dobson.
Prosecutors Bob Gill and Page Simpson played for the jury surveillance video showing Nelson using Elliott’s credit cards at The Parks at Arlington mall to buy expensive Nike shoes and a bright green Oscar the Grouch T-shirt. He also purchased $400 in jewelry at the mall.
A man testified that Nelson sold him Dobson’s laptop for $150 the day of the killing 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.
“We miss Clint every day,” the Dobson family wrote in a statement. “We miss his laughter and his wit, his advice and his love for us. Clint lived a life of service and integrity.”
The pastor’s relatives did not witness the execution.
“We have chosen to take this day to focus on the great memories we have of Clint rather than giving time to his killer. Steven Nelson forever changed our lives, but he has never occupied our minds.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2025 at 8:16 PM.
