MOST WANTED MERCY: Ford Backed Clemency for Las Vegas ‘Thrill Killer’ Who Landed on FBI’s Top 10 List

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford voted in 2025 to grant clemency to Tony Ray Amati, a convicted murderer once placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list after a string of Las Vegas shootings police described as “thrill killings.”

Amati was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list as fugitive No. 452 in February 1998. Federal agents arrested him in Marietta, Georgia days later after a tip generated by “America’s Most Wanted,” according to FBI records. 

The case that ultimately put Amati behind bars was grisly.

Amati was convicted of murdering 22-year-old Pizza Hut employee Keith Dyer, who was walking a female coworker home near UNLV in 1996 when masked gunmen opened fire. Dyer was shot repeatedly and his coworker was wounded. At trial, she testified that the attackers “cackled” and laughed as they fired, according to Fox News. Prosecutors described the murder as a “thrill killing” committed “for the mere pleasure of it.”

Police also connected guns recovered from Amati’s residence to three Las Vegas killings in 1996. Amati was ultimately acquitted of murder charges in the other two deaths and convicted in Dyer’s killing.

Nearly three decades later, Amati’s name landed before the Nevada Board of Pardons Commissioners.

On June 26, 2025, Ford joined the board in approving a commutation that allowed Amati’s sentences to run concurrently and made him immediately eligible for parole. Official state records list the action plainly: “Tony Amati, NDOC #66673, Commuted Sentences to Run Concurrent and is Immediately Parole Eligible.” 

The commutation itself did not automatically free Amati. But Nevada parole records show the Parole Board later granted him parole in September 2025, with an effective date of September 24. 

Fox News reported this week that Amati was one of 30 convicted murderers for whom Ford voted to pardon or significantly reduce sentences during his tenure as attorney general. In some cases Ford and Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo voted together. In others, including several involving violent killers, Ford broke with Lombardo. 

Better Nevada PAC seized on the Amati case Tuesday.

“BREAKING: It turns out one of the 30 murderers @AaronDFordNV voted to give clemency to was on the FBI Most Wanted List,” the group wrote. “Tony Ray Amati, known as ‘The Thrill Killer,’ was connected to three deaths and reportedly ‘cackled’ while he repeatedly shot a Pizza Hut worker.”

The group called Ford’s support “reckless, misguided, and dangerous.”

Ford has made his record as Nevada’s chief law enforcement officer a centerpiece of his campaign for governor, highlighting his work against fentanyl trafficking, human trafficking, ghost guns and the state’s rape-kit backlog. His office and gubernatorial campaign did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment on the broader clemency record.

But Amati’s record now presents Ford with a stark question: why did Nevada’s top law enforcement official vote to give an FBI Ten Most Wanted murderer an earlier shot at freedom?

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