Courtroom footage captured the moment a sick predator, who murdered a six-year-old girl, went on a deranged tirade as he was sentenced to life in prison.
Christopher Clements, 42, was convicted of murdering Isabel Celis in 2012 after kidnapping her from her parents’ bedroom.
He had previously been convicted of the murder of 13-year-old Maribel González, whose remains were found in the same Arizona desert as Celis.
In Pima County Superior Court on Wednesday, he read a rambling and confusing statement, calling his conviction a “Soviet-era show trial of Stalin” and “Hitler’s fascist government.”
“I still maintain my innocence,” he said. “It is inconceivable that anyone with any semblance 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 found in the Arizona desert.
Christopher Clements was convicted of murder in February. He was already serving a life sentence for another murder.
At his sentencing hearing Wednesday, Clements went on a rambling tirade in which he compared his conviction to a “Soviet-era Stalin 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 charges being dropped in another case.
He was arrested in 2018 for the deaths of Celis and González, and sentenced to serve the rest of his life behind bars for the latter murder in 2022.
Using long and often meaningless sentences in his five-minute sentencing statement Wednesday, Clements criticized his trial as unfair, taking particular aim at Pima County Superior Court Judge James Marner.
“Using the Soviet-era show trials of Joseph Stalin to try to illustrate that the American nomenclature trials are diametrical to the iniquitous nature of those 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 he was simply repeating some platitude he learned in law school or on the History Channel in an effort to embellish the same (unintelligible) thing about his court.
“Or if a passive recognition of the process overseen by your predecessor were operating, and from that point the jury deliberations overseen by you could be considered anything but fair.”
Speaking without emotion, he added that the trial against him would make Russian dictator Joseph Stalin proud.
Clements was already serving a life sentence for the 2014 murder of 13-year-old Maribel González (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 being dropped in another case. He maintained that he did not commit the murder.
Celis’ remains were found in the Arizona desert (seen on police body camera 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 any semblance of pragmatism or objectivity could call what just happened a fair trial,” he said.
Clements previously faced a trial in 2023, which resulted in a hung jury. He maintained that the judge secured his guilty verdict for the second time.
“He assured the jurors that he would not get out of prison, and his sentiment and bias came out of his own mouth” toward the jurors, he said.
“His actions helped ensure that a guilty verdict was almost certain.”
Continuing his bizarre references, Clements compared 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, the purges and trials Joseph Stalin show”.
“I continue to maintain my innocence, even if said innocence has never been presumed by anyone in this court or in the community in which it operates.”
The judge had allowed Celis’ family to leave the courtroom to avoid hearing Clements’ sentencing statement.
Following the conclusion of the trial, the killer’s lawyer said of the case: “I can’t think of a sadder and more depressing case than this.”
Clements previously faced a trial in 2023, which resulted in a hung jury. He maintained that the judge secured his guilty verdict for the second time.
Clements’ own attorney, Eric Kessler, added at the hearing that in his 41-year career he “can’t think of a sadder and more depressing case than this.”
He added: ‘I am so sorry for the Celis family and the domino effect on the Celis family. I wish I could do something about it, but I can’t. But I’m afraid it was that emotion that convicted Mr. Clements, regardless of what the evidence was.
After the verdict, Celis’ father, Sergio, said: “We are all going to serve a life sentence… for this inescapable nightmare.”
Her mother, Rebecca, added that home never felt like home again, because Isabel’s “favorite place in the world was home, and he ruined it.”
She said she was glad to see Clements spend the rest of his life behind bars, which was necessary to “process the wrath of God, which is inescapable.”