UPDATE: 4:25 pm
Defendant Steven Lawayne Nelson's fingerprints were found inside the church office where pastor Clint Dobson was found beaten, bound and suffocated, an expert told jurors Wednesday.
Fingerprint expert Robin Kasson with the Arlington Police Department testified that she found Nelson's fingerprints on a computer wrist in Dobson's office that apparently had been left behind when a laptop was stolen.
Nelson's fingerprints were also found on receipts for about $400 in jewelry purchased at The Parks at Arlington mall with credit cards taken from church secretary Judy Elliott, who was beaten severely and left for dead but survived.
Dobson, 28, pastor of NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington, was killed in his church office.
Testimony is continuing in state District Judge Mike Thomas' court.
-Dianna Hunt
UPDATE: 1:45 p.m.
Studs from a flashy white belt worn by capital murder defendant Steven Lawayne Nelson were found at the crime scene where pastor Clint Dobson was beaten and suffocated and his assistant bludgeoned and left for dead, an Arlington homicide detective told jurors Wednesday.
Detective Caleb Blank testified that the unusual white items seemed out of place in Dobson's office at the NorthPointe Baptist Church in north Arlington, so they were taken into evidence by the crime scene investigator.
Two days later, when Nelson was arrested, he was wearing the white belt with white studs. Four of those studs were missing, Blank said.
Nelson is standing trial on capital murder charges in the slaying of Dobson, 28, on March 3, 2011. Nelson was arrested two days later after two acquaintances alerted police.
Blank also testified that he seized black-and-green Air Jordan shoes from the townhome where Nelson was staying. The shoes appeared to have blood on them and appeared to match a bloody footprint found at the crime scene.
Testimony is continuing in state District Judge Mike Thomas' court.
-Dianna Hunt
UPDATE: 11:40 a.m.
Trial has halted for lunch. Testimony is set to resume at 1:15 p.m.
UPDATE: 9:51 a.m.
An on-again, off-again "girlfriend" who testified Wednesday about exchanging texts with defendant Steven Lawayne Nelson was instead a cross-dressing male lover.
Tracey Nixon, who testified outside the jury's presence wearing women's clothes and bright pink lipstick, admitted under questioning from defense attorney Bill Ray that she was physically a man.
Ray asked state District Judge Mike Thomas to exclude texts that make reference to drugs or to a homosexual relationship, saying they could taint jurors' perceptions of the defendant.
"What we've got is a relationship that is not within the mainstream of society," Ray told the judge.
(Steven Lawayne Nelson looks over the courtroom during his trial. Ron Ennis/Star-Telegram)
The judge excluded some portions of the cellphone records showing texts exchanged between Nixon and Nelson after the killing of Arlington pastor Clint Dobson, 28, and the severe beating of church secretary Judy Elliott on March 3, 2011.
Nixon testified that he exchanged text messages with Nelson just before 3 a.m. the day after the killing.
Prosecutor Page Simpson said the texts were important because they help establish a timeline of Nelson's actions after the killing.
-Dianna Hunt
The latest witness in the capital murder trial of Steven Lawayne Nelson is apparently a baseball fan.
William Hunt Powell, assistant public safety manager of The Parks at Arlington mall, raised his right hand before testifying Wednesday and the bandages were clear to everyone in the courtroom.
At the prompting of state District Judge Mike Thomas, Powell said his hand was injured when he caught a fly ball hit by Texas Rangers MVP candidate Adrian Beltre.
"He even signed it for me," he said.
Nelson, 25, went on a shopping spree at The Parks mall with credit cards stolen in a robbery at the NorthPointe Baptist Church on March 3, 2011. Pastor Clint Dobson, 28, was beaten, bound and suffocated with a plastic bag. Church secretary Judy Elliott was severely beaten and left for dead but survived.
Testimony is continuing in the Criminal District Court #4.
-Dianna Hunt
Dude is gay too.....
Posted by: Billy Davis | October 03, 2012 at 02:20 PM