Arizona jury convicts man for role in ‘cold-blooded execution’

PHOENIX — A federal jury has convicted an Arizona man of fatally shooting someone multiple times.

Clifton Hamalowa, 47, of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community was convicted last week in court of first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Arizona. 

Court records show the victim had been renting a room from Clifton’s sister. The defendant had gotten into an argument with the victim and Hamalowa decided to kill him, prosecutors wrote in court filings.

Hamalowa shot the victim in the head on Aug. 29, 2020 in the Gila River Indian Community. He wrapped the victim up in bed sheets and dumped the body in a remote area of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa reservation. The defendant’s family then participated in removing evidence from the scene.

Hamalowa’s brother disposed of the victim’s car in Parker and the defendant’s sister made her daughter clean up the victim’s blood. 

The victim had a 3-year-old daughter living with him at the time he was murdered, records show. Gila River police would later find the victim’s child living with Hamalowa and his relatives about two weeks after the killing, records show.

Hamalowa and his sister additionally tried to intimidate witnesses into staying silent, prosecutors said. The brother denied involvement in the murder but acknowledged taking the victim’s car.

The defendant’s brother and sister were previously sentenced to prison after they each pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder, the prosecutor’s office said. 

“The killing in this case was horrific—it was a cold-blooded execution, committed in front of the victim’s young daughter,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on May 27.

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