Shocking courtroom words of predator Christopher Clements who snatched girl, 6, from her bedroom as she slept before murdering her, as he is sentenced to spend rest of his life in prison
Courtroom footage captured the moment a sick predator who murdered a six-year-old girl launched an unhinged tirade as he was sentenced to life in prison.
Christopher Clements, 42, was convicted of murdering Isabel Celis in 2012 after snatching her from her parents’ bedroom.
He was previously convicted of killing 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez, whose remains were found in the same Arizona desert as Celis.
On Wednesday in Pima County Superior Court, he read a rambling and confused statement in which he characterized his conviction as a “Stalin show trial against the Soviet era” and “Hitler’s fascist government.”
“I still maintain my innocence,” he said. “It is unthinkable how anyone with even the semblance of pragmatism or objectivity could call the event that just happened a fair trial.”
Isabel Celis, 6, disappeared from her parents’ home in 2012, before her remains were later found in the Arizona desert
Christopher Clements was convicted of murder in February. He was already serving a life sentence for a separate murder
During his sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Clements launched into a boisterous tirade comparing his conviction to a “Stalin show trial of the Soviet era” and “Hitler’s fascist government.”
Celis’ father told the court: ‘Until the day I die, I will feel responsible for not doing my job and protecting my little girl from the evil that lurked outside her window.’
Clements became a suspect in the case five years after Celis disappeared when he told FBI agents he could lead them to her remains in exchange for charges in another case that were dropped.
He was arrested in 2018 for the deaths of Celis and Gonzalez, and sentenced to serve the rest of his life behind bars for the latest murder in 2022.
Using long-winded and often nonsensical sentences in his five-minute sentencing statement Wednesday, Clements denounced his trial as unjust, taking particular aim at Pima County Superior Court Judge James Marner.
“I use the Soviet-era show trials of Joseph Stalin to try to illustrate that the trials of American nomenclature are diametrically opposed to the unjust nature of the trials carried out at the behest of the late Russian dictator,” he said.
Addressing his comments to the judge, he continued, “I’m not sure if you were simply repeating some platitude you learned from law school or the History Channel in an attempt to embellish the (unintelligible) of your court.
“Or if you adopted a passive recognition of the proceedings supervised by your predecessor, and from that point on the jury deliberations supervised by you could be considered anything but fair.”
He added dispassionately that the prosecution against him would make Russian dictator Joseph Stalin “proud.”
Clements was already serving a life sentence for the 2014 murder of Maribel Gonzalez, 13 (pictured), whose remains were found in the same desert as Celis
Clements became a suspect in the case in 2017 when he told FBI agents he could lead them to Celis’ remains in exchange for charges in another case that were dropped. He continued to insist that he did not commit the murder
Celis’ remains were found in the Arizona desert (seen on police bodycam footage), in the same area where another of Clements’ victims had been found.
Isabel’s father told the court at Clements’ sentencing: “Until the day I die, I will feel responsible for not doing my job and protecting my little girl from the evil that lurked outside her window ‘
“It is inconceivable how anyone with even a semblance of pragmatism or objectivity could call the events that just happened a fair trial,” he said.
Clements was previously tried in 2023, resulting in a hung jury. He argued that the judge secured his guilty verdict for the second time.
“You assured those jurors that I would not get out of jail, and your sentiment and bias went out of your own mouth” to the jurors, he said.
“Your actions made a guilty verdict all but certain.”
Clements continued his bizarre references, comparing his trial to “village hangings carried out by the crown in the Middle Ages, Hitler’s fascist government, Pol Pot and his brutal Khmer Rouge regime, and yes, Joseph Stalin’s purges and show trials.”
“I still maintain my innocence, even though that innocence has never been suspected by anyone in this court or the community in which it operates.”
The judge had allowed Celis’ family to leave the courtroom to avoid Clements’ sentencing hearing.
After the trial, the killer’s lawyer said of the case: “I can’t think of a sadder, more depressing case than this.”
Clements was previously tried in 2023, resulting in a hung jury. He argued that the judge secured his guilty verdict for the second time
Clement’s own attorney, Eric Kessler, added during the hearing that in his 41-year career he “cannot think of a sadder, more depressing case than this.”
He added, “I am so sorry for the Celis family and the ripple effect through the Celis family. I wish I could do something about that, but I can’t. But it is, I fear, that emotion that has undone Mr. Clements, regardless of what the evidence was.”
After the verdict, Celis’ father Sergio said: “We are all going to serve a life sentence… from this inescapable nightmare.”
Her mother, Rebecca, added that their home never felt whole again because Isabel’s “favorite place in the world was home, and he ruined that.”
She said she was glad to see Clements spend the rest of his life behind bars, which was necessary to “deal with God’s wrath, which is inescapable.”