A few hours after 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez disappeared on the way to a friend's house in June 2014, the man now accused in her death returned to his own home, a few blocks away, looking for bleach.
When Christopher Matthew Clements learned there wasn't enough bleach at his house, the new father borrowed his girlfriend's car to go purchase more, even though he'd just been driving his own vehicle. When he returned from the errand, Clements asked his girlfriend if she had looked in his trunk.
She told him she had not, and he got back into his car and drove away. He was gone all night, and when he returned the next morning he headed straight into the shower. When he was done, Clements asked his girlfriend to wash his clothes, clean the floor where he'd walked in and to also clean the shower curtain, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday, saying the girlfriend will testify to these events.
It would be years before investigators linked Clements to Maribel's death, which ultimately occurred through a male hair found on her body and GPS evidence from his cell phone, Deputy Pima County Attorney Tracy Miller said during her opening statement Tuesday as Clements' trial on kidnapping and murder charges began.
And while there won't be any witnesses testifying that they saw the two together on the night of June 3, 2014, there's more than enough evidence to connect Clements to the Tucson teenager's death, Miller said.
Gonzalez
Clements, 40,ย is chargedย with first-degree murder in the deaths of Isabel Celis, 6, and Maribel. His trial in Maribel's death is scheduled to last through the end of this month, while his trial in connection with Isabel's killing is slated for February.
Isabel went missing in 2012 and Maribel in 2014. Both cases went unsolved for years until law enforcement leaders announced Clements' arrest in both cases in September 2018.
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.
On Tuesday, Miller told the jury about the discovery of Maribel's body shortly after her disappearance, saying that a passerby noticed drag marks on Trico Road on the afternoon of June 6, 2014, three days after Maribel went missing.
Feeling as if something wasn't right, the woman got out of her car to investigate, and as she got closer, saw a human body underneath a discarded tire.
The medical examiner was unable to identify a cause of death but was able to conclude that Maribel died via homicide.
"Over 20 miles across town on the east side, you have a family who is anxiously waiting for 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez to come walking back in the door," Miller said.
Clements kept his head down and turned away from the jury and from Miller throughout the prosecutor's opening statement, exhibiting no emotion.
Prosecutor Tracy Miller of the Pima County Attorney's Office addresses the court during trial of Christopher Clements in Pima County Superior Court.
Miller spoke about how Maribel's case more than once went cold, with police first looking into a man in his 20s who had been involved with the teen. He provided police with a DNA sample and investigators found no evidence to connect him to her disappearance.
But in early 2017, while Clements was assisting law enforcement with a different investigation, he led investigators to the area of Avra Valley and Trico Roads. He pointed out a tire pit near where Maribel's body had been found and said it looked familiar, walking police to within a few feet of where her body was discovered.
"The Pima County Sheriff's Department didn't disclose where the body was found. The general location, yes, but that close to that spot? No," Miller said.
The information was relayed to the investigator on Maribel's case, who shortly after learned that through advanced DNA technology, male DNA had been found on hair samples taken from her body. With a reference sample from Clements โ who denied recognizing or knowing anything about the teen โย police were able to link him to Maribel's body, Miller said.
She also told jurors that GPS records from Clements' phone are consistent with it being in the area where Maribel's body was dumped.
Police also found a password-protected folder on his household's computer labeled "secret apps," that Miller said included hundred of pictures.
"Scantily clad pictures of little girls from ages 5 through 14," Miller told the jury. "(There were also) pictures of little girls that were taken in our community, right here in Tucson."
Police were able to determine that the photos belonged to Clements and not his girlfriend, and interviewed the subjects they could identify. Miller said one of the girls and several parents will testify that they did not take the photos or even know they were being taken, and did not know Clements.
"There will not be a witness who comes in and says, 'I saw Christopher Clements with Maribel in a car,' but all of the testimony you will hear over the next two weeks will include evidence that will leave you firmly convinced that Christopher Clements kidnapped and murdered Maribel Gonzalez," Miller said.
Defense's rebuttal
Clements' defense attorney Joseph DiRoberto focused his opening statement Tuesday on what the state doesn't have, which, according to him, is a case.
"Mr. Clements had no relationship, involvement or contact of any kind with Maribel Gonzalez or her family and friends before she went missing," DiRoberto said.
There were no phone calls, texts, emails or any other connections between the two, and no witnesses to testify to the events surrounding Maribel's disappearance or death, he said.ย
"There's no evidence she went anywhere with a person or a groupย โฆ or was held against her will," DiRoberto said.
Maribel had gotten into a fight with her mother the evening of June 3 before leaving the house, DiRoberto said, contending the teen had a history of running away, skipping school, joyriding in her mother's car, drinking, smoking and chasing after older men.
Later, Pima County Superior Court Judge James Marner ruled that DiRoberto could not elicit any testimony about behavior by Maribel before her death, saying it would be overly prejudicial. It was unclear if the jury would be given instructions to disregard DiRoberto's earlier comments.
"Maribel was physically strong and strong-willed," DiRoberto said during his opening statement. "She was picky about who she spent her time with and wouldn't go with just anyone."
DiRoberto reminded jurors that the medical examiner's office had been unable to determine a cause of death, and said the defense will have another medical examiner testify that it's not best practice to determine a manner of death via homicide without first examining a person's medical records.
"The circumstances of finding her body were suspicious, but that doesn't mean she was murdered," DiRoberto said.
There are also issues with the DNA evidence, DiRoberto told the jury. Swabs collected at autopsy that originally tested positive for male DNA later showed that no DNA could be obtained from the items. When the defense tried to test samples on its own, there was no remaining DNA material for testing and the original sample was either lost or destroyed over the years, he said.
In addition, he said the partial DNA profile from the hair that prosecutors say linked Clements to Maribel's body is far from a perfect match to Clements, and could actually belong to "hundreds of males in the general population."
DiRoberto urged jurors to wait to hear both sides' version of the evidence before forming any beliefs.
Former Pima County Sheriff's Detective Joseph Borquez during the trial of Christopher Clements in Pima County Superior Court on Sept. 13, 2022.
Former Pima County Sheriff's Detective Joseph Borquez testified first for the state about the investigation into Maribel's death. Her mother, Valerie Calonge, cried softly in the gallery as pictures of the area where Maribel was found and later, Maribel's body, were projected on large screens in the courtroom. Several of Maribel's family members were in attendance, including her grandmother and her father, Abrian Gonzalez. At one point later, Calonge got up and left the courtroom, a victim advocate by her side.
DiRoberto asked detectives about the site where Maribel was found, and Borquez andย Sheriff's Sgt. Mark O'Dell testified the area was a common site for immigrant smuggling and drug trafficking.
Nine women and seven men make up Clements' panel of jurors, with four serving as alternates. If convicted, Clements faces life in prison, as the Pima County Attorney's office is no longer pursuing the death penalty in any cases.
