Texas Pastor Killer Admits Temper: AP Interview

From the visiting area of death row, Steven Lawayne Nelson displays none of the violent murderer described in psychological evaluations as a man hooked on mayhem.

The 25-year-old Nelson acknowledges he has anger problems and anything can set him off. But in his first interview since becoming Texas' newest condemned prisoner, Nelson tells The Associated Press he's no crime addict and hasn't ever killed anyone.

A Tarrant County jury didn't believe him and convicted him in October of savagely beating and suffocating Rev. Clint Dobson, a young North Texas pastor. He's also been charged with killing a mentally ill inmate while in jail awaiting trial.

Nelson's last act before leaving Tarrant County two months ago for death row was to break a sprinkler head in a holding cell and flood the courtroom.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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