A convicted felon has been found guilty of the murder of a North Texas pastor in his church last year.

A Fort Worth jury deliberated for more than an hour Monday before finding Steven Lawayne Nelson guilty of capital murder. Nelson denied killing Reverend Clint Dobson at Arlington’s NorthPointe Baptist Church in March 2011.

The trial entered the punishment phase this afternoon and Nelson could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole. A juvenile services worker testified this afternoon during the punishment phase of the trial that Nelson has been committing crimes since he was a teenager.

Dobson's church, NorthPointe, released a statement today on the church's website about the conviction saying,

"This has been an unimaginably trying time for two families and two churches. Through God’s grace we have made it this far in what we know will be an ongoing legal process. We are grateful to the prosecutors and investigators who effectively prepared and presented this terrible case to the jury.

We are grateful to the jury for their diligence and endurance through what we know was a difficult trial. Those in the courtroom have heard stories and seen images that will never leave them. We are grateful to Judge Thomas for his fair and compassionate handling of this trial.

Most of all we are grateful to God for holding us up every day since this occurred in March 2011. He will do so in the days to come. His love endures forever.

Just as we continue to lift up Clint’s family, and Judy and her family, as well as the congregations of North Pointe and First Baptist, we will continue to pray for the people responsible for this terrible crime and their families.

We will pray that God will work a miracle of healing and peace and change in their lives. As people of faith, as Christians, that is what we must do.

The conviction does not mark an end for us. Regardless of the outcome we will always have questions.

However we are strengthened by the firm knowledge that as awful as this has been, God’s hand is in all of this and one day, when we are reunited with our friend Clint Dobson, we will understand."

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