Convicted child killer Christopher Clements, on Wednesday was sentenced to a natural life prison term for the 2012 kidnapping and killing of 6-year-old Isabel Celis.
In February, a Pima County Superior Court jury convicted Clements of taking Celis from her midtown home and leaving her body in the desert northwest of Tucson.
A convicted sex offender with a long criminal record, Clements is already serving a life sentence in the separate killing of another Tucson girl, 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez. She disappeared in June 2014 while walking to a friend’s house. Her remains were found in the same desert area as Celis.
Gonzalez
Clements maintained his innocence during his sentencing when he stood to address the the court. Pima County Superior Court Judge James Marner allowed Isabel Celis’ family to exit the courtroom during that portion of the hearing, which was recorded live by several broadcast local news stations.
Convicted child killer Christopher Clements is taken from the courtroom after being sentenced Wednesday to a natural life term in the killing of 6-year-old Isabel Celis. Clements already is serving a life sentence in the separate killing of another Tucson girl, Maribel Gonzalez, 13.
“It’s unconscionable that any person with any semblance of pragmatism ... could call this a fair trial,” Clements told the judge
Clements said he was never presumed innocent by the court or the community.
Dressed in black and white jail stripes, Clements read his wavering, handwritten statement from a pad of legal paper, expressing little emotion. But emotions were running high elsewhere, even at the defense’s table where Clement’s own attorney, Eric Kessler, prepared to speak.
Kessler has spent six years working on Clement’s case. He said that in his 41 years practicing law, and having tried more than 30 first-degree murder cases, this case is one that had him and his team reeling.
“I can not think of a sadder, more depressing case than this,” Kessler said. But, he also described Clements’ case as one of circumstance and many layers, including publicity.
“I’m so sorry for the Celis family and the ripple effect through the Celis family,” Kessler said, addressing the court. “I wish that I could do something about that, but there isn’t. But, it’s that emotion, I fear, that doomed Mr. Clements, regardless of what the evidence was.”
For Isabel Celis’ parents and siblings, who were offered a chance to address Clements in court prior to his sentencing, the guilty verdict was a long time coming.
Isabel Celis
“We are all going to serve a life sentence . . . of this inescapable nightmare,” Isabel’s father, Sergio, said.
Isabel’s mother, Rebecca, lamented about never seeing her little girl grow up, graduate high school, or go to college. She said spoke of the family’s home never feeling like one again.
“(Isabel’s) favorite place in the world was home, and he ruined that,” she said, noting that a natural life sentence was needed to help Clements “process God’s wrath, which is inescapable”.
With the anniversary of Isabel Celis’ disappearance quickly approaching on April 21, and many community members referring to this sentencing as closure, Deputy Pima County Attorney Tracy Miller said for some that “closure” simply doesn’t exist.
“It will never be closure for this family,” she told the judge. “What was ripped from them could never be replaced.”
