โUnbelievable nightmare.โ
Pima County prosecutors echoed Sergio Celisโ words in the aftermath of his 6-year-old daughterโs 2012 disappearance during opening statements Tuesday in the trial of the man accused in Isabel Celisโ death.
Christopher Matthew Clements is charged with kidnapping, first-degree murder and burglary in connection with Isabelโs 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 sonsโ room, asking Isabelโs brothers, Sergio Miguel and Julian, if theyโd seen their sister.
โIsabel Celis was ... snatched from her own home, her own bedroom in the middle of the night. Without a trace,โ Miller said. โHow could this happen?โ
The family began to search for the little girl, with Sergio Miguel running into the backyard to discover Isabelโs window โwide openโ 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 Isabelโs 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 โ who lived blocks away from the Celis family at the time of Isabelโs disappearance and was questioned by police during the original canvas โ 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 โIsabel Celis,โ Miller said.
The girlfriend did as sheโd been asked and the FBI came out to visit Clements. He made a deal to tell authorities the location of Isabelโs 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.
โThey check and find a small human skull and some other bones that appear to be human remains,โ Miller said, adding that DNA later confirmed the remains were Isabelโs. โThis is where the real investigation begins.โ
Clements wasnโt arrested right away, but Tucson police detectives got to work investigating and processing new information and evidence, including Clementsโ cell phone.
GPS data put Clements in the vicinity of the location of Isabelโs body just hours after her abduction, Miller said.
His phone also revealed that heโd called the Celisโ home phone number multiple times in October and November 2021 and his iPad revealed hundreds of photos of โscantily-clad little girls,โ the prosecutor said.
โThereโs 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,โ Miller told the jury. โBut the strength of the evidence thereafter leaves no doubt that the person responsible for murdering and abducting Isabel Celis is Christopher Clements.โ
Defense blames Isabelโs father
Clementsโ defense attorney, Eric Kessler, also referenced Sergio Celisโ sentiments that the situation was an โunbelievable nightmare,โ but reminded jurors that the purpose of the trial is to determine whether Clements is the person responsible for that nightmare.
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 wouldnโt wonder why the defense is โpointing the finger in a certain direction.โ
โThe defense expects to elicit testimony that somebody other than Mr. Clements is responsible for Isabelโs disappearance,โ Kessler said. โFrankly, that person is Sergio.โ
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 โvery high walls,โ the only entrance being a large wooden gate that locked from the outside.
He said detectives tried to recreate Isabelโs abduction through her bedroom window, but that it was impossible to do it โwithout making a whole lot of racketโ 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 Celisโ 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 Isabelโs older brother, Sergio Miguel, was awake and on his phone until 3 a.m.. Kessler said the boy โ though admittedly a light sleeper โ heard nothing, including the television that was supposedly left on.
โThe focus became โmaybe that wasnโt really what happenedโ,โ Kessler said.
Detectives discovered messages on the walls of Isabelโs closet in her handwriting, including โI donโt like Dadโ and โDadโs bad,โ 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 Isabelโs mother, Kessler said, โBecky will tell you her daughter would scream if a stranger tried to take her. But of course we know that didnโt happen.โ
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 Isabelโs disappearance.
โThen along comes Chris Clements, five years later,โ Kessler said. โHe has knowledge of things... part of that is the belief that he knows where Isabelโs remains are.โ
Kessler admitted that Clements was able to lead authorities to Isabelโs remains, but told jurors there is no evidence of any kind that would connect him to her death.
โYou will not hear any evidence of a confession by Mr. Clements or any admission on his part that he had anything to do with Isabelโs disappearance,โ Kessler said. โYouโre not going to hear that thereโs any physical or forensic evidence. They didnโt find anything connecting this to Mr. Clements.โ
โAbsolutely not,โ 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 daughterโs death.
โAbsolutely not,โ he said forcefully, looking directly at the jury. โAbsolutely not.โ
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.