TUCSON, AZ — Prosecutor Tracy Miller put a smiling picture of Isabel Celis on the courtroom screen as she made her opening statement.
During her opening statement, Miller went on to describe how five years after the girl disappeared, Christopher Clements led investigators to the fragments of the 6-year-old girl's skeleton—all because Clements was trying to cut a deal to get some burglary charges dropped.
He told investigators he didn’t kill the girl, he simply knew her remains were in the remote area off Avra Valley and Trico Roads.
This is Clements' second trial for the kidnapping and killing of 6-year-old Isabel Celis, who disappeared in 2012. Jurors could not agree on a verdict in his previous trial last year, which ended in mistrial.
Clements became a suspect in the Celis case after he was linked to the remains of 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez, whose remains were left nearby in that same remote area. Clements is serving a life term for the Maribel Gonzalez murder but jurors will not be told about Clements' conviction in that case.
Prosecutors say on the night Isabel Celis disappeared, cell phone tracking put Clements' phone near where the remains were. They also described a secret locked folder on his iPad that showed collections of young girls—and evidence that he had searched for the term "Isabel Celis Sexy," and the term '"trace evidence on body."
The defense needs to plant reasonable doubt to acquit Christopher Clements or get a hung jury again.
Defense attorney Eric Kessler worked to raise doubt about Isabel’s father Sergio. He said Sergio seemed far too calm when he found his daughter missing from their house.
Kessler focused on the mystery of how the girl could be removed from the house without anyone in the family noticing, or without their several bark-prone dogs alerting anyone. Kessler suggested someone like Sergio Celis helped an intruder get into and out of the house.
For a time, police did regard Sergio Celis as a suspect in his daughter's disappearance but never charged him.
Any pictures of Clements during the Celis re-trial are from earlier court hearings. Cameras are forbidden in this trial.
