Tony Ray Amati

Robbery and murders

On May 26, 1996, Amati and two accomplices, Troy Sampson and Edward James, robbed Master Shooter's Supply, a gun store in southern Las Vegas, taking $30,000 worth of guns and ammunition. The next day, Michael Matta was shot more than twenty times while looking through a dumpster. On July 28, John Garcia was shot to death one block from where Matta was killed; witnesses reported two men fleeing.

Amati denied being present at those murders, though the guns used were later found in his home. In August, the three men confronted Keith Dyer, who was shot thirteen times; his coworker Stacie Dooley was shot in the leg. Police alleged the men were testing stolen weapons and dubbed them 'thrill killers'.

Investigation

Amati cut his hand at the Dyer shooting scene, and the blood he left behind was later collected by police and used as evidence against him. In October 1996, he and his accomplices Sampson and James sold stolen firearms to a buyer who turned out to be an undercover officer. Sampson and James were arrested, but Amati escaped. Authorities then searched the group’s trailer and found the stolen weapons, which were later linked to the guns used in all three murders.

Because Amati could not be found, his partners stayed in custody. On February 27, 1998, the FBI placed Amati at number 452 on its Ten Most Wanted list and took over the investigation. Over the two years he was on the run, he used false names such as Anthony Ray Jones, Phillip D. Gitlitz, Debon Restivito, and Shane William Wade. He was arrested several times in Utah but each time managed to convince police he was someone else.

While still a fugitive, he was featured on America’s Most Wanted. Investigators on the show described him as likely armed and dangerous and thought he might be in Southern Illinois because of relatives there, but after more than fifty tips from that area, the lead went nowhere. Days after the episode aired, a tip from Georgia came in, and FBI agents were sent to Atlanta. On March 1, they raided his hotel room and arrested him without any trouble.

His father, Charlie Amati, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a peace officer for giving police a fake license with Tony’s picture. He received a 12-month conditional discharge and a $200 fine.

Trial and imprisonment

In December 1996, Sampson admitted to possessing stolen goods and a firearm as a convicted felon, earning a prison term of 20 to 50 months. Amati, Sampson, and James all faced murder charges, but those against Sampson and James were dismissed after the judge withheld evidence. Only Amati remained charged. At his 1999 trial, he maintained his innocence, arguing that Sampson and James were the primary killers and that he never fired a shot.

He claimed he joined the killings only because he feared Sampson and fled because he believed no one would trust his story. The jury cleared him of murdering Matta and Garcia but convicted him for Dyer’s death. During sentencing, Amati apologized and asked for mercy. His lawyers pointed to his youth and argued that executing him while his co-defendants went free would be unjust.

The jury chose life in prison with parole eligibility, a result Bruce Dyer called satisfying, remarking that decades behind bars would be a living nightmare. Jurors explained they believed Amati shot Dyer but spared him because he had no other violent history before or after the crimes. Amati now serves time at Lovelock Correctional Center, with parole possible in 2038, when he will be 62. Sampson, released in August 1999, robbed and set fire to a Las Vegas convenience store on November 14, 2000.

He cut phone lines, sliced a hole in the roof, and disabled power to the cameras, but one camera captured him breaking into video poker machines, trying to open an ATM, and dousing the store with lighter fluid before igniting it. Because the store engaged in interstate commerce, he faced federal arson charges. In 2002, he pleaded guilty and received 150 months, exiting prison on December 11, 2012.

Did You Know?

• Amati graduated from Clark High School with honors in 1994.
• During his murder trial, a doctor testified that Amati was highly intelligent and exhibited many traits of obsessive–compulsive disorder, saying 'He has the personality characteristics that you would see in a good accountant.'
• Amati was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list on February 27, 1998, and was arrested just two days later on March 1.