Pima County is seeking a murder conviction in the retrial of a man accused of kidnapping and killing 6-year-old Isabel Celis, who disappeared in 2012.
Christopher Clements, 42, is once again facing first-degree murder and a host of other charges after his trial last year ended in a hung jury.
He is already serving a natural life sentence plus 17 years in prison for the murder and kidnapping of 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez, who disappeared in 2014.
Pima County Attorney Tracy Miller said Celis went missing on the night of April 20, 2012, “limping'' to bed after his family returned from a baseball game.
Her body wasn't discovered until five years later, when Clements led FBI agents to her skeletal remains in a remote desert area of the Abra Valley, just north of Tucson.
Clements had a contract with an FBI agent. A theft charge unrelated to Isabel's disappearance was dropped, and the release of her car would lead investigators to her body.
“Unbelievable nightmare”
“This is an unbelievable nightmare,” Miller said in his opening statement Wednesday. She repeated the words Isabel's father, Sergio Celis, used to describe the aftermath of his daughter's disappearance.
She was “abducted from her home in the middle of the night and disappeared without a trace,” Miller said.
Evidence presented by Miller during the weeks-long trial included a photo of the girl on Clements' computer, Isabel's full name written on a piece of paper and buried under a rock in the garden, and a cell phone taken near the scene. This includes location, etc. Her body was discovered the night she disappeared.
Miller said investigators found years of search history on Clements' computer that included phrases such as “Isabelle Celis is sexy” and “Trace found on body.”
However, the only evidence found in her room was a drop of her blood between the bed and window, and the window screen was found bent and leaning against the house. Miller said no fingerprints or other DNA evidence was found on the screen.
The defense claims there is no forensic evidence of an intruder in Isabel's room.
The defense, led by attorney Eric Kessler, also emphasized the lack of forensic evidence. Kessler said the evidence indicates there were no intruders or strangers in Celis' home the night Isabel disappeared.
Kessler said what the jury won't hear is eyewitness testimony, confessions or forensic evidence that implicates Clements.
Between 12 a.m. and 3 a.m., when Isabelle was believed to have disappeared, her brother was awake and her father was asleep on the couch.
Kessler said the family's testimony showed they didn't hear Isabel's screams, the dog's barking or the loud noises made when Isabel's window was opened, indicating that no one heard them. .
He also noted that during the investigation into Isabel's disappearance, detectives had doubts about the theory that Isabel had been taken through a window. They thought it was likely that someone had let her out her front door and past the couch where her father was sleeping.
Kessler said the 6-foot wall around the house made it difficult for anyone to get the child over the wall and out of the backyard.
“Detectives did not find any evidence of a struggle…so the investigation focused on Sergio,” he said.
Father expresses his position and claims innocence
Sergio Celis insists he had nothing to do with his daughter's disappearance.
When prosecutors asked him if he had been involved in her kidnapping, he loudly replied, “Absolutely not.”
He recalled how he and his brothers frantically searched for Isabel inside the house, calling their parents to see if she was home and telling his wife to come over. .
“There had to be a reasonable explanation why she wasn't there,” he said.
After he found out she was really gone, he called 911 and recalled thinking: And it's better to get all the information you need and do it right. ”
Celis said her daughter is outgoing, “a little fearless” and has a loving personality.
“She had two older brothers who she wanted to get along with,” he says.
He noticed that she had never been out with a stranger before.
Here's where to contact the reporter: sarah.lapidus@gannett.com. The Republic's southern Arizona coverage is funded in part by a grant from Report for America. Support Arizona news coverage with a tax-deductible donation. supportjournalism.azcentral.com.
