The man being held in connection with the killing of 6-year-old Isabel Celis was arrested on unrelated charges five months after her disappearance and was out of jail on bail when a second Tucson girl whose death he’s been linked to was murdered, according to newly obtained court documents.
Christopher Matthew Clements, 36, was indicted Friday on 22 felonies, including murder and kidnapping charges in the slayings of Isabel and 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez.
Clements has a 20-year criminal history spanning multiple states. His first conviction came at the age of 16, when he pleaded guilty to two sex offenses in Oregon. Over the next two decades, Clements racked up arrests in Washington, Florida and Arizona, several for failing to register as a sex offender, as required by his Oregon conviction.
Also as a condition of his conviction, Clements was required to submit a DNA sample to the Combined DNA Index System, also known as CODIS, which police later used to connect him to a 2016 burglary.
Isabel was discovered missing from her midtown bedroom on the morning of April 21, 2012.
Clements, who was living about two miles from her home at the time, was arrested five months later on Sept. 19 on a charge of second-degree residential burglary after a woman came home and said she saw Clements loading items up into a Lexus parked in front of the house. Police ran the license plate number the victim provided, which came back to Clements, who was arrested at his home and subsequently charged with burglary, criminal damage and theft — all felonies.
His bond was set at $10,000, of which he was required to pay 10 percent, and he was released the next day.
That October, Deputy Pima County Attorney Malena Acosta filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider Clements’ release, noting several factors that merited stronger conditions, including two recently filed injunctions against harassment, an active warrant from Oregon for failing to register as a sex offender and pawning $28,000 worth of gold, silver and diamonds in the preceding months.
The court denied the motion, and Clements remained free while the case slowly worked its way through court.
The case filing has several hundred entries, including status conferences, evidentiary hearings and eventually a trial. Court documents show that Clements was an active participant throughout, insisting at times on sitting in on witness interviews, until the judge put that to a stop.
His attorney filed several motions to keep the jury from seeing certain evidence in the case and tried to have the case dismissed based on prosecutorial misconduct.
In June 2014, Maribel’s body was found in a desert area three days after she left home to visit a friend. It wasn’t until nine months later, in March 2015, that Clements would go on trial for the residential burglary case.
The case ended in a mistrial, after two jurors violated court rules. While a new trial date was quickly set, it was later canceled, and a new date hadn’t been set in January 2017, when Clements was indicted on additional charges of burglary and criminal damage stemming from a June 2016 incident.
In that case, the victim came home to find $2,000 worth of jewelry and bonds missing and bleach poured on the carpet throughout her home. Clements’ DNA was found in a “smudge mark” left on the victim’s bedroom wall, and when police questioned him he denied committing the burglary but could not say why his DNA was inside the home, telling the detective his questions about the location were not direct enough.
It’s unclear why it took more than six months to charge Clements in connection with the case, but after his January 2017 arrest he was denied bond because he was already out of jail on bail at the time of the second burglary.
He remained in the Pima County jail while his lawyers in both cases continued preparing for trial, but the charges were dismissed on March 30, weeks after police discovered Isabel’s body near where Maribel’s had been found three years earlier.
On April 1, he was indicted in Maricopa County on felony charges of burglary and theft of controlled property stemming from incidents in 2015. He was booked into the Maricopa County jail that day, where he remains, according to online jail records.
He is to be arraigned in Tucson on Sept. 24. His bond has been set at $2 million cash in connection with the new charges.
Timeline: Man indicted in the killing of 2 Tucson girls
Timeline: Man indicted in the killing of 2 Tucson girls
April 21, 2012
Updated
Isabel Celis
In 2012, 6-year-old Isabel Celis went missing from her midtown home. The incident happened at night as the family slept. No one heard any sounds.
Isabel's father, Sergio, reported Isabel missing the following morning on April 21, 2012, after searching for her with her two older brothers.
They found her bedroom window open.
Her disappearance shook the city of Tucson, as the community united to help find her. Tucson police received thousands of tips throughout their investigation.
June 3, 2014
Updated
Maribel Gonzalez’s body was found June 6, 2014.
In June of 2014, 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez told her family she was going to visit a friend.
When Maribel didn't come home the following morning, her mother called the friend who told her that Maribel never arrived.
Maribel was reported missing and was initially treated as a runaway, Arizona Daily Star archives show.
Maribel's home was said to be minutes away from Isabel's.
June 6, 2014
Updated
Photos of murder victim Maribel Gonzalez on display during a press conference held by Homicide Survivors, Inc. in 2016.
Just a few days later, Maribel's body was found in a desert area northwest of Tucson, near North Trico and West Avra Valley roads.
There were no suspects at the time.
March 31, 2017
Updated
Approximately 500 mourners release pink and purple balloons in a farewell gesture to wrap up the memorial ceremony for Isabel Celis at St. Augustine Cathedral, Saturday, April 29, 2017.
Years after Isabel went missing, her remains were found northwest of Tucson — in roughly the same area as Maribel's body.
Police Chief Chris Magnus informed the public of their discovery on March 31, 2017, though the remains were found earlier in the month.
Officials remained tight-lipped about the case and would not discuss how investigators were led to Isabel's remains.
September 14, 2018
Updated
Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus, Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall and Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier at a press conference at TPD on Sept. 15, 2018. Christopher Matthew Clements was indicted in connection with the deaths of Isabel Celis and Maribel Gonazalez.
On Sept. 14, 2018, 36-year-old Christopher Matthew Clements was indicted. He is accused of killing both Isabel and Maribel.
Authorities announced the indictment the following day, Sept. 15. They revealed that in 2017, FBI agents received a tip about a man who might know more information about Isabel's disappearance.
Clements, a convicted sex offender, was the man.
After speaking with Clements, investigators were able to find Isabel's remains.
Clements is facing 22 charges that include 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.
He is currently being held in the Maricopa County jail on unrelated charges.
Records show that Clements has a long criminal history and that he was out of jail on bail when Maribel was killed.
September 21, 2018
Updated
Christopher Matthew Clements
On Sept. 21, 2018, the Star obtained new court documents showing that Clements led investigators to Isabel's remains after asking for unrelated burglary charges to be dropped.
He also asked that his impounded car be released. Investigators agreed to his terms.
The same court documents show that DNA taken from Maribel's body was linked to Clements.
They also say that investigators found a letter from Clements that implied there were four bodies left in the desert area.
Investigators also found schoolwork and a child's purple sweater in the home of Clements' girlfriend. Sexually explicit photos of children were found on a computer, in addition to internet searches such as "child killer found not guilty" and "body found in desert."
September 24, 2018
Updated
Christopher Clements is arraigned via video in Pima County Superior Court in Tucson on Sept. 25, 2018. Clements is accused of killing Isabel Celis and Maribel Gonzalez.
Clements pleaded not guilty in a court appearance at Pima County Superior Court on Sept. 24, 2018.
Families of Isabel and Maribel were in the courtroom for the video arraignment.
Clements appeared to have a black eye. The week prior, officials confirmed that he had gotten into a fight with two other inmates at the Maricopa County jail.
February 11, 2019
Updated
Christopher Clements sits at the defense table with his lawyers during a status conference in Pima County Superior Court.
On Friday, Feb. 8, the county attorney's office filed notice that they would be pursuing the death penalty.
On Monday, Feb. 11, Judge Deborah Bernini said she would be drafting up a document to address pre-screenings, which includes an IQ screen.
"We don't take five years to try death penalty cases here like they typically do in Phoenix," Bernini told Clements' lawyers, Eric Kessler and Joseph DiRoberto, adding that she wanted to give them adequate time to file an objection to the pre-screening.
The hearing addressed several other items, including the state's motion to appoint a special master to review recordings of dozens of recorded jail phone calls between Clements and Tucson attorney John Kaufmann, who represented Clements in a 2012 case.
