Steven Nelson, 38, was sentenced to death in 2012, a year after he was found guilty of murdering Arlington pastor Clint Dobson.

Nelson, 37, was put to death by lethal injection for smothering Clint Dobson, a 28-year-old pastor and husband, during a botched robbery at

A Texas man convicted of beating and suffocating a Dallas area pastor in his church during a robbery was put to death Wednesday evening, the second execution in the U.S. this year and the first of four scheduled in Texas over the next three months.

Texas executed Steven Lawayne Nelson for the murder of Pastor Clint Dobson, with AG Ken Paxton stating that justice was served for the victims' families.

Texas man Steven Nelson, convicted in 2012 of murdering a pastor the year before, was put to death by lethal injection Wednesday evening.

Texas executed Steven Nelson for the 2011 murder of the Rev. Clint Dobson Wednesday night. It is the second execution of the year in the nation.

Steven Lawayne Nelson maintained that he unknowingly participated in the violent church robbery but didn’t harm anyone. His execution was the state’s first for 2025.

Texas is set to execute Steven Nelson by lethal injection on Wednesday for the 2011 murder of beloved pastor Clint Dobson, who was just beginning his ministerial career.

Nelson, 37, was convicted of the 2011 murder of the Rev. Clint Dobson in a robbery that turned fatal inside Dobson's own church just west of Dallas.