Clements' phone was near child's home the day she disappeared

Cellular data shows the phone belonging to the man accused of kidnapping and killing 6-year-old Isabel Celis in 2012 was near her house and also near the site her remains were eventually found on the morning she was discovered missing.

The data was presented in court Friday in Christopher Clements’ trial. He was identified as a suspect in Isabel’s slaying when he led authorities to her remains in 2017, after negotiating a deal to have unrelated charges against him dropped. He’s already been convicted in the 2014 kidnapping and killing of 14-year-old Maribel Gonzalez.

Cell phone tracking expert Sy Ray testified Friday about Clements’ cell phone locations the night of April 20 and morning of April 21, 2012. Isabel’s father, Sergio Celis, testified he found her missing from her bedroom at 8 a.m. April 21.

A former law enforcement officer, Ray now owns ZetX, a company that developed software that compiles cell phone data and uses it to map individual phones’ movements.

Using his program and call, text, WiFi and GPS data provided by AT&T, Ray tracked Clements’ cell phone movements, walking the jury through the activity on a map overlaid with Clements’ phone locations.

Ray showed jurors that there was no activity on Clements' phone between 12:45 and 3:45 a.m. He told police during a 2012 interview that he'd gone to pick up a friend around that time, and after calling her a few times, returned home. Clements' phone pinged from a tower at Interstate 19 and Ajo Way shortly before 6 a.m., consistent with what he previously told police about picking up a friend from that area and dropping her off at her mother’s house.

The phone next pinged off a tower in the area of North Craycroft Road and East 29th Street shortly before 6:30 a.m., near Clements' home. The phone didn’t connect to a cell tower again until 9:20 a.m., when it was located in the area of Interstate 10 and Twin Peaks Road, Ray said.

By 10:13 a.m., Clements’ phone was pinging off cell towers in the Avra Valley area that covered the location where Isabel’s body was eventually found.

Ray’s testimony and cell phone records contradicted much of Clements’ story to police in May 2012, when he was interviewed as part of a neighborhood canvas in the search for Isabel.

Details of the phone’s locations

On Thursday, Tucson police Detective Josh Cheek, the lead investigator in the case after Isabel’s remains were discovered March 3, 2017, told jurors about Clements’ call detail records from April 20 through April 22, 2012.

Clements told police in a 2012 interview that he met up with friends at a northwest-side Hooters the night of April 20. After leaving, they went to an adjoining bowling alley where they stayed until it closed, around 12:30 a.m., after which he started to head home, but then got a call from a friend who needed a ride, he said. Cellular data presented during Ray’s testimony confirms his story about Hooters and trip to the bowling alley.

Clements told police during his May 2012 interview that he went from the bowling alley to pick up an ex-girlfriend, Corina Rivera, but when he arrived at her location, she didn’t respond to several calls, so he went back home. GPS data presented during Ray’s testimony does not indicate that Clements made any such trip, as no activity was recorded between 12:45 and 3:45 a.m.

There was also no call or text activity on Clements’ phone after the 12:32 a.m. text message from Rivera until roughly 3:45 a.m., when she again messaged Clements.

They spoke on the phone at roughly 5:30 and 6 a.m., then exchanged texts at around 6:20 a.m. Cheek told the jurors that after that, there were no messages sent or received until around 9:20 a.m., when Clements received a text from someone named Bob. He received another message from Bob a few minutes later, but didn’t respond until nearly 10:15 a.m., Cheek said.

Clements and Rivera exchanged messages shortly after that and at 11:03 a.m., when Clements received a phone call from a number with a 713 area code, cell phone records show.

On April 22, Clements stopped using that phone number and switched to a different one.

When asked by a friend why he changed numbers, Clements responded, “Got stalkers.”

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Defense questioning

Defense attorney Eric Kessler asked Cheek if detectives had reviewed any surveillance video from businesses in the area of East Broadway and North Craycroft, near the Celis home, and if there were sightings of Clements’ vehicle on any of the footage.

Cheek confirmed Clements’ car had not been found on the footage, but later said the quality of the surveillance images wasn’t high enough quality to determine makes and models of most vehicles. He also said there were blind spots near the house that weren’t covered by security cameras.

Kessler also tried to impeach Becky Celis’ earlier testimony about her daughter Isabel being present when a dark-haired man came to the house prior to April 2012 to inquire about an inoperable Acura the family had parked next to the home.

During her testimony, Becky Celis described a man with black or dark-colored hair talking to her through a wooden door next to the driveway, and Isabel standing next to her as she spoke briefly to him through the door.

Kessler pointed to Becky Celis’ May 23, 2017 interview with Cheek, during which she told police the man was Hispanic with black hair and facial hair. When asked if her kids had been present the two times the man had visited the house, Becky Celis said, “I don’t remember. I don’t know.”

Cheek acknowledged that Becky Celis had told him she didn’t know, but that she had provided further explanation at the time.

“She said that the kids would follow her when she came out to that (door,) she would have to go out and make sure she got to the (door) before they got to the (door), because they would just go running to that door,” Cheek said.

Kessler also pointed to blood drops found on the floor of Isabel’s bedroom the morning she was discovered missing, referring to a May 23, 2017 interview with police when Sergio Celis, Isabel’s father. Sergio Celis said then that he remembered he and Becky talking about the blood drops after the police first asked and had agreed they were likely from a bloody nose Isabel had gotten a few days prior to her disappearance.

During her testimony, Becky Celis told the jury she hadn’t noticed the drops until police pointed them out during their initial investigation and that Isabel rarely got bloody noses.

Decision soon on defense plans

On Thursday, Judge James Marner said he will take into consideration a defense request to allow specific questioning of a former Tucson police detective who, after expressing doubts about Clements’ guilt, was placed on a list of law enforcement officers whose conduct needs to be shared with defense attorneys if an officer worked on their clients’ cases.

Detective Bryn Fox was assigned to Isabel’s case from the day of her disappearance through October 2017. Court documents show that Fox told a Pima County Attorney’s Office investigator that she “did not believe Clements was their guy,” and that she was “not alone among the investigators ... that worked on (the) case that believed that (Isabel’s) father, Sergio Celis, may have orchestrated his daughter’s disappearance.”

The defense will call Fox as a witness to talk about her extensive interviews with the Celis family, and “intends to present evidence that Det. Fox was likely (placed on the list) in retaliation for her doubts,” court documents say. The evidence is relevant because it’s “evidence for the jury to consider prosecutorial bias,” the documents say.

Marner will rule on the motion during a Monday hearing.

Trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. in Pima County Superior Court and to last through March 9.