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 Nelson by lethal injection on Wednesday for the 2011 murder of a beloved young pastor. Nelson, who was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. CT, was convicted of killing the Rev.

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