Arizona Murderer Sentenced to Life in Prison

Clifton Nez Hamarova, 47, has been sentenced to life imprisonment following the murder of Richard Olds. This tragic incident occurred just 16 days after Hamarova’s release in 2020, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Arizona District.

Hamarova was found guilty of shooting Olds multiple times in front of children on a reservation from the Gila River Indian Community. Following the crime, Hamarova and his brother attempted to cover it up by getting rid of Olds’s car and disposing of his body at a remote site on the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Reservation.

To complicate matters, both Hamarova and his sister allegedly threatened witnesses to discourage reporting. He was convicted of multiple charges, including first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit serious assault, among others.

This isn’t Hamarova’s first run-in with the law; he has a history of violent crimes, including a 1991 incident where he stabbed his mother with a butcher knife. His criminal background has drawn considerable attention at this sentencing.

Additionally, Hamarova’s brother, Thomas Leon Hamarova, pleaded guilty as an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to 108 months in October 2023, with another accessory incident leading to a further 84-month sentence in April 2024.