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.

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.

Steven Nelson was executed on Wednesday for an Arlington church pastor's murder. Nelson killed Arlington Rev. Clint Dobson in his church in 2011. This is Texas' first execution of 2025. ARLINGTON, Texas - A man on death row for killing a North Texas pastor was Wednesday evening in Huntsville.