A convicted Arizona murderer is back behind bars after killing a second victim just 16 days after being released, according to federal authorities.
Clifton Nez Hamalowa served time in connection with a murder charge and was released from prison in 2020. Just over two weeks after his release, he shot and killed Richard Olds, a sentencing memorandum filed on May 22 in district court states.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release on May 29 that Hamalowa, of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Arizona, shot Olds in the head in front of his young child. The community is located about 30 miles northeast of Phoenix.
Prosecutors have said Hamalowa and his siblings dumped Olds’ body in a remote area. Following a trial that lasted seven days, Hamalowa, 47, was found guilty of murder, in addition to conspiracy to commit assault resulting in serious bodily injury, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault resulting in serious bodily injury, and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona said in the press release.
The shooting took place on “reservation land belonging to the Gila River Indian Community,” the release noted.
Siblings Thomas Leon Hamalowa and Devonne Beth Hamalowa pleaded guilty to accessory and were sentenced to time behind bars in 2023 and 2024, according to prosecutors.
“Hamalowa and his sister also intimidated witnesses to prevent them from reporting,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office added.
Clifton Nez Hamalowa was sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years on May 27. Prosecutors said in the sentencing memo that he’s “considered a career offender because of his lengthy history of violence.”
The memo states that he stabbed his mother with a butcher’s knife in 1991 and that in 1999, he stabbed and killed a man during an argument and subsequently threatened his mother when she said she was going to alert the authorities.
It also says that he stabbed a fellow inmate while serving time between 1999 and 2000.