Defense attorney tries to blame father of slain Isabel Celis, 6

“Unbelievable nightmare.”

Pima County prosecutors echoed Sergio Celis’ words in the aftermath of his 6-year-old daughter’s 2012 disappearance during opening statements Tuesday in the trial of the man accused in Isabel Celis’ death.

Christopher Matthew Clements is charged with kidnapping, first-degree murder and burglary in connection with Isabel’s abduction and killing. Prosecutors say he became a suspect when he led investigators to the location of her remains in 2017.

For the Celis family, the nightmare became a reality the morning of April 21, 2012, when Sergio woke up to find his daughter missing from her bed, Deputy Pima County Attorney Tracy Miller told jurors. He next went to his sons’ room, asking Isabel’s brothers, Sergio Miguel and Julian, if they’d seen their sister.

“Isabel Celis was ... snatched from her own home, her own bedroom in the middle of the night. Without a trace,” Miller said. “How could this happen?”

The family began to search for the little girl, with Sergio Miguel running into the backyard to discover Isabel’s window “wide open” with the screen bent, leaning up against the house.

Sergio Celis, who has a background in trauma care after working for years in a hospital emergency room, knew he needed to be strong for his family and provide information to the police, Miller told jurors, to explain his calm demeanor as he spoke to 911 dispatchers that morning.

Detectives came to the house but found no DNA, fingerprints or witnesses to connect anyone to Isabel’s disappearance, and after days and weeks of searching and canvassing the neighborhood, the case went cold, Miller said.

Discovery of remains, GPS data

That is, until 2017, when Clements — who lived blocks away from the Celis family at the time of Isabel’s disappearance and was questioned by police during the original canvas — found himself in Pima County jail on unrelated charges.

Clements called his girlfriend, asking her to dig up a small bag buried in the front yard and call the FBI to tell them he had information in another case.

When the girlfriend went to the yard she found a bag with a paper inside. Written on it was the name “Isabel Celis,” Miller said.

The girlfriend did as she’d been asked and the FBI came out to visit Clements. He made a deal to tell authorities the location of Isabel’s remains in exchange for the unrelated charges being dismissed and his car being released from impound.

On March 3, 2017, Clements and his attorney accompanied authorities to a desert area in Marana, located off of Avra Valley and Trico roads.

After several hours with nothing found, Clements told agents to look in an area by a tree and some dense brush.

“They check and find a small human skull and some other bones that appear to be human remains,” Miller said, adding that DNA later confirmed the remains were Isabel’s. “This is where the real investigation begins.”

Clements wasn’t arrested right away, but Tucson police detectives got to work investigating and processing new information and evidence, including Clements’ cell phone.

GPS data put Clements in the vicinity of the location of Isabel’s body just hours after her abduction, Miller said.

His phone also revealed that he’d called the Celis’ home phone number multiple times in October and November 2021 and his iPad revealed hundreds of photos of “scantily-clad little girls,” the prosecutor said.

“There’s not going to be a lot of information about how Christopher Clements got Isabel Celis out of her bedroom during the early morning hours of April 21, 2012,” Miller told the jury. “But the strength of the evidence thereafter leaves no doubt that the person responsible for murdering and abducting Isabel Celis is Christopher Clements.”

Defense blames Isabel’s father

Clements’ defense attorney, Eric Kessler, also referenced Sergio Celis’ sentiments that the situation was an “unbelievable nightmare,” but reminded jurors that the purpose of the trial is to determine whether Clements is the person responsible for that nightmare.

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Kessler said most of the evidence in the case focuses on the days and weeks after Isabel went missing, and that he had to provide context for jurors so they wouldn’t wonder why the defense is “pointing the finger in a certain direction.”

“The defense expects to elicit testimony that somebody other than Mr. Clements is responsible for Isabel’s disappearance,” Kessler said. “Frankly, that person is Sergio.”

Kessler said evidence will show the father, who was never charged with any crimes, was responsible.

The defense attorney told jurors the property included a courtyard with “very high walls,” the only entrance being a large wooden gate that locked from the outside.

He said detectives tried to recreate Isabel’s abduction through her bedroom window, but that it was impossible to do it “without making a whole lot of racket” while carrying a 20-pound object. Isabel at the time weighed closer to 40 pounds, Kessler said.

He also pointed to what he called inconsistencies in Sergio Celis’ statements that he had fallen asleep on the couch while watching a rerun of a Diamondbacks baseball game the night Isabel was taken, waking up early in the morning and going to the master bedroom a few hours before discovering Isabel was missing.

Cell phone data revealed that Isabel’s older brother, Sergio Miguel, was awake and on his phone until 3 a.m.. Kessler said the boy — though admittedly a light sleeper — heard nothing, including the television that was supposedly left on.

“The focus became ‘maybe that wasn’t really what happened’,” Kessler said.

Detectives discovered messages on the walls of Isabel’s closet in her handwriting, including “I don’t like Dad” and “Dad’s bad,” he said.

Kessler said there was no evidence of any kind of struggle and no evidence that anybody forcibly took Isabel from the home.

Referring to Isabel’s mother, Kessler said, “Becky will tell you her daughter would scream if a stranger tried to take her. But of course we know that didn’t happen.”

Kessler mentioned a hidden cell phone Sergio Celis did not hand over to police and evidence the family had been struggling financially at the time of Isabel’s disappearance.

“Then along comes Chris Clements, five years later,” Kessler said. “He has knowledge of things... part of that is the belief that he knows where Isabel’s remains are.”

Kessler admitted that Clements was able to lead authorities to Isabel’s remains, but told jurors there is no evidence of any kind that would connect him to her death.

“You will not hear any evidence of a confession by Mr. Clements or any admission on his part that he had anything to do with Isabel’s disappearance,” Kessler said. “You’re not going to hear that there’s any physical or forensic evidence. They didn’t find anything connecting this to Mr. Clements.”

‘Absolutely not,’ Sergio Celis tells jury

The prosecution called Sergio Celis to the stand as its first witness, asking him almost immediately if he had anything to do with his daughter’s death.

“Absolutely not,” he said forcefully, looking directly at the jury. “Absolutely not.”

The trial is scheduled to last through March 9 in Pima County Superior Court.

Clements was convicted in September in the 2014 kidnapping and murder of 14-year-old Maribel Gonzalez of Tucson, but the jury in the current trial will not hear about that or any of his previous convictions.

Photos: Disappearance of Isabel Celis and Maribel Gonzalez