A man already serving a life sentence for killing a Tucson teenager in 2014 is facing a retrial for the kidnapping and murder of a 6-year-old girl.
Jury selection began Tuesday in the second murder trial of Christopher Clements in the Isabel Celis case.
Celis disappeared from her parents’ home in Tucson in April 2012.
A man already serving a life sentence for killing a Tucson teenager in 2014 is facing a retrial for the kidnapping and murder of a 6-year-old girl. (Fox News)
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Authorities said Clements became a suspect in 2017 after telling the FBI he could lead investigators to Celis’ body in exchange for unrelated charges being dropped.
At the time, Clements said he only knew the location of the girl’s body and had nothing to do with her death.
After a 10-day trial last year, a Pima County Superior Court jury deliberated for nine hours over two days but could not reach a verdict on first-degree murder charges against Clements. A mistrial was declared in March last year.
There is a four-week grace period for the retrial.
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Clements, 42, was sentenced to life in prison in November 2022 for the kidnapping and murder of 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez, who disappeared on her way to a friend’s house in June 2014.
Her body was found several days later in a remote desert area north of Tucson.
A separate jury heard Clements’ first trial involving Celis.
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Authorities said Gonzalez’s case included evidence showing her body was a partial DNA match to Clements, but Celis’ body was so deteriorated that the trial court said that it did not contain a matching allegation against the defendant.
Clements, a convicted sex offender with a lengthy criminal record, was arrested in 2018 and charged with 22 felonies in connection with the deaths of the two girls.
