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On Thursday, February 29, 2024, Christopher Clements was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and second-degree burglary in the murder retrial related to the death of 6-year-old Isabel Celis in 2012. Clements was already serving a life sentence for the 2014 death of an Arizona teenager as he faced additional convictions.
The jury's verdict, announced just before 3 pm on Thursday, concluded a case that had experienced a mistrial in the initial trial last year. The retrial's unanimous decision solidifies Christopher Clements' involvement in the abduction and tragic death of Isabel Celis, who vanished from her parents' home in Tucson in 2012.
The first trial ended with a hung jury, but this time, the Pima County Superior Court jurors reached a guilty verdict on all counts.
This disturbing development follows a separate deadlock by a different jury last year on whether Christopher Clements kidnapped and killed Celis. Clements was previously found guilty in November 2022 of kidnapping and killing 13-year-old Maribel Gonzales.
Christopher Clements found guilty in the death of Isabel Celis
Jurors commenced deliberations on Tuesday in Christopher Clements' retrial, which commenced on February 7, 2024. The earlier trial last year concluded without a verdict, leading to a mistrial.
As reported by Fox 10 News, Tucson police stated:
"Clements became a suspect in Celis' death in 2017 when he told FBI agents that he could lead them to the girl's remains — but said he had nothing to do with her death — in exchange for having charges in an unrelated burglary case dropped."
During closing arguments on Tuesday, Deputy County Attorney Tracy Miller emphasized Clements' actions in the investigation. According to Arizona Daily Star, Tracy stated:
"He doesn’t come forward unless there is something to gain. There’s no other person it could be."
Clements’ defense lawyer, Eric Kessler, on the other side, had told jurors that there was no evidence associating Clements with the crime, and police couldn’t establish his entry into the home, as reported by the Arizona Daily Star.
Christopher Clements, apprehended in 2018 for the death of Maribel Gonzalez, has been found guilty for the second time for the death of Isabel Celis. Gonzalez vanished in June 2014 and her body was ultimately found far north of Tucson in an isolated area. Years after, Celis' corpse was also discovered in the same general location.
Clements, who had already been serving a natural life sentence for the kidnapping and killing of Maribel Gonzalez in 2022, will face the legal consequences for his unspeakable crimes. As per Fox 10 News, jurors in Clements' retrial were not made aware of his prior conviction or his disturbing history of s*x crime convictions in several states, dating back to when he was just 16.
Despite the absence of information about Clements' past convictions, the jury delivered a guilty verdict in the retrial. As reported by Tucson TV station KOLD, Celis' mother and brother were present in the courtroom on Thursday but left after the verdict was announced.
According to KOLD, Deputy County Attorney Tracy Miller shared her thoughts on the verdict. She said:
"Jury did a great job sorting through all of the evidence and all of the info we had to reach what we believe was the right result."
The sentencing for Christopher Clements is scheduled for March 25, 2024.
