Shocking courtroom words from predator Christopher Clements, who grabbed a 6-year-old girl from her bedroom while she slept before murdering her, as he is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison
Courtroom footage captured the moment a sick predator who murdered a six-year-old girl went on a rampage as he was jailed for life.
Christopher Clements, 42, was convicted of murdering Isabel Celis in 2012 after grabbing her from her parents’ bedroom.
He had previously been convicted of murdering 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez, whose remains were found in the same Arizona desert as Celis.
In Pima County Superior Court on Wednesday, he read a rambling and confused statement that called his sentence a ‘Soviet-era Stalin show trial’ and ‘Hitler’s fascist government.’
“I still maintain my innocence,” he said. ‘It is inconceivable how any person with even a hint of pragmatism or objectivity could call what 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
At his sentencing on Wednesday, Clements launched into a fiery tirade, comparing his conviction to a ‘Soviet-era Stalinist show trial’ 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 dropping charges in another case.
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 latter’s murder in 2022.
Using verbose and often nonsensical sentences in his five-minute sentencing hearing Wednesday, Clements blasted his trial as unfair, particularly in the eyes of Pima County Superior Court Judge James Marner.
“Using Joseph Stalin’s Soviet-era show trials to try to illustrate that trial in the US nomenclature as being diametrically opposed to the unjust nature of those carried out at the behest of the late Russian dictator,” he said.
Directing his remarks at the judge, he continued: ‘I’m not sure if you were just repeating some platitude that you got from law school or the History Channel in an attempt to embellish the very (unintelligible) of your court.
“Or if you operated with a passive acknowledgment of the proceedings overseen by your predecessor, and from that point the jury’s deliberations, which you yourself supervised, could be seen as anything but fair.”
He spoke in an emotionless manner, adding that his trial 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 dropping charges in another case. He maintained that he did not commit the murder
Celis’ remains were found in the Arizona desert (seen in 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 any person with even a hint of pragmatism or objectivity could call what just happened a fair trial,” he said.
Clements previously stood trial in 2023, which resulted in a hung jury. He claimed the judge secured his guilty verdict the second time.
“You assured these jurors that I would not get out of jail, and your emotions and bias came from your own mouth” to jurors, he said.
“Your actions helped ensure that a guilty verdict was almost 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 ruthless Khmer Rouge regime, and yes, Joseph Stalin’s purges and show trials.’
“I still maintain my innocence, although such innocence has never been presumed by anyone in this court or the community in which it operates.”
The judge had allowed Celis’ family to leave the courtroom to avoid hearing Clements’ sentencing.
After the trial, the killer’s lawyer said of the case: ‘I can’t think of a sadder, more depressing case than this’
Clements previously stood trial in 2023, which resulted in a hung jury. He claimed the judge secured his guilty verdict the second time
Clement’s own lawyer, Eric Kessler, added at 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 it, but there isn’t. But it is that feeling, I fear, that convicted Mr. Clements, whatever the evidence was.’
After the verdict, Celis’ father Sergio said: ‘We are all going to serve a life sentence… of this inevitable nightmare.’
Her mother, Rebecca, added that their home never felt like one again because Isabel’s ‘favorite place in the world was home and he destroyed that.’
She said she was happy to see Clements serve the rest of his life behind bars, which was necessary for him to ‘process the wrath of God, which is inevitable’.