The first in a pair of trials for a man accused in the kidnappings and killings of two Tucson girls is set to begin Tuesday, four years after officials announced his arrest.
Christopher Matthew Clements, 40, is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Isabel Celis, 6, and Maribel Gonzalez, 13.
Isabel went missing in 2012 and Maribel in 2014. Both cases went unsolved until the Tucson Police Department, Pima County Attorney's Office and Pima County Sheriff's Department announced Clements' arrest in a news conference on Sept. 14, 2018.
The officials said that, in 2017, FBI agents received a tip that Clements might know information about Isabel's disappearance.
In March 2017, Clements led investigators to Isabel's remains, in a desert area northwest of Tucson, while he was trying to cut a deal to get an unrelated burglary charge dropped, court records show.
Maribel's body had previously been found but there had been no suspects in her death until investigators learned of Clements and found Isabel's remains. Then, DNA evidence collected from Maribel's body linked him to her killing, as well.
He was charged with 22 felonies, including two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping of a minor under age 15, burglary and 14 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, which is said to be related to child pornography.
Clements' first trial will address Maribel's killing. The trial in connection with Isabel's death is set for February, Pima County Superior Court records show.
Christopher Matthew Clements
Clements, a convicted sex offender who has a criminal history spanning more than two decades and four states, is accused of taking Isabel from her midtown home as her family slept in April 2012.
Two years later, Clements was out of jail on bail in a burglary case when he allegedly killed Maribel, who had left her Tucson home on June 3, 2014, to visit a friend.
When Maribel didn't come home the next morning, her mother called the friend, who told her she never arrived.
Her disappearance was initially treated as the case of a runaway, but her body was found a few days later, in a desert area northwest of Tucson, near North Trico and West Avra Valley roads.
Her home was minutes away from Isabel's.
Hundreds of mourners turned out for a candlelight vigil and funeral for Isabel in 2017 after she was finally found, remembering her as a hazel-eyed girl who played baseball and chose purple as her favorite color.
Becky Celis has remembered that her daughter “loved to come and give mom and dad hugs all the time.”
Abrian Gonzalez, Maribel’s father, has remembered her as a soccer and softball player who enjoyed going to car races with him at a motorsports park.
“She had a big heart, and was a comedian,” he has said.
Death penalty no longer sought
Clements' 20-year criminal history included sex offenses, assault, identity theft and burglary spanning several states.
By the time he was 16, Clements was a registered sex offender in Oregon. He failed several times over the years to register as a sex offender — a requirement of his sentence. He was convicted of a felony assault charge in Washington in 2002, and in 2006, of felony theft in Oregon, both of which resulted in sentences of probation. In 2006 and 2007 he was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender in Florida and Oregon, receiving probation in both cases.
In 2007, Clements was arrested on federal charges in connection with failing to register as a sex offender in Arizona, following a traffic stop in Tucson. Two years later, he was convicted and sentenced to 46 months in prison and five years of supervised release. That conviction was overturned on appeal, since Clements' original sex offense conviction occurred before the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act went into effect in 2006.
In January 2017, Clements was charged in Pima County Superior Court with felony counts of burglary and criminal damage and ordered to be held without bond because of two prior convictions and an allegation that he committed a felony while he was out of jail on bail.
On March 30, 2017 — less than a month after authorities located Isabel's remains northwest of Tucson in roughly the same area as Maribel's body, with Clements' assistance — Pima County prosecutors dismissed the burglary and criminal damage charges against him, court records show. On March 31, 2017, police announced the discovery of Isabel's remains.
Court documents show that investigators found a letter written by Clements that implied there were actually four bodies left in the desert area.
A search of Clements' then-girlfriend's home revealed schoolwork and a child's purple sweater, court records say. Sexually explicit photos of children were found on a computer that also contained internet searches such as "child killer found not guilty" and "body found in desert."
Clements has been held in Maricopa County on unrelated charges since the announcement of his charging in Isabel's and Maribel's deaths, but he was transferred last week to the Pima County jail for trial.
He was initially facing the death penalty, but Pima County Attorney Laura Conover announced in April that she would no longer pursue the death penalty in this or any other case, making good on a campaign promise. Conover, a Democrat, was elected as county attorney in 2020.
Clements was originally set to stand trial in 2021, but a change in judges and negative television coverage led to delays, court records show.
In January, Pima County Superior Court Judge Deborah Bernini ruled that cameras would not be allowed in the courtroom, citing concerns about Clements' right to a fair trial, the court's ability to keep him safe and a detraction from the dignity of the proceedings, court records show.
Jury selection took place Thursday and Friday, with hundreds of questionnaires having been sent out in advance to prospective jurors. More than 140 respondents were excluded based on potential bias due to media exposure, hardship or other reasons, court records show.
Opening statements are set to begin Tuesday, Sept. 13, at 10:30 a.m. before Superior Court Judge James Marner.
