TUCSON, Ariz. - A former jail mate of Christopher Clements claims the accused child killer, who has been charged with raping and murdering< /span> two Tucson-area girls, bragged about getting away with other murders.
The inmate, Derrick Brady, spent time with Clements in Maricopa County Jail.
“The crimes he is involved in are disgusting and horrifying,” Brady wrote in a letter to our sister station in Phoenix, ABC15. “His attitude about them was cavalier to say the least…He stood at our cell door and bragged about ‘getting away with it before, and I’ll get away with it again.’”
The 36-year-old Clements was arrested last year for the deaths of Isabel Celis and Maribel Gonzalez, who were both murdered and buried in a desert area outside of Tucson< /span> in separate incidents.
Sources also say law enforcement agencies are investigating Clements for specific missing children cases in Arizona and multiple states, including Oregon, Washington, and Florida.
He has a criminal record for a variety of crimes in all of those states, records show.
Brady said he was interviewed by the FBI about Clements. Law enforcement sources also said that Brady spoke with authorities.
“I told them the same things I told you,” Brady said in an interview.
In a statement, Clements’ attorneys said they were not aware of Brady’s claims and the investigations being conducted into other missing children cases. Read the full statement at the bottom of the page.
INTERVIEW WITH DERRICK BRADY
After learning authorities had interviewed Brady, ABC15 wrote to him asking if he would agree to a phone interview. [Brady is now an inmate in the state prison system, which does not allow in-person interviews.]
Brady sent back a letter agreeing to speak about his time with Clements. Below are excerpts of the phone interview and related information provided for context.
Take a look at Brady's letter below.
BISCOBING: Was that in Maricopa County Jail?
BRADY: Yeah, it was in Lower Buckeye Jail.
When police announced Clements was being charged in the murders of the two girls, he was being held in Maricopa County on unrelated burglary and fraud charges.
Clements shared a jail pod with Brady, who heard news of the arrest and went to confront him with another inmate, Cole Spencer. [Spencer has also agreed to speak with ABC15, but his interview could not be set up in time before publication.]
The two spoke to Clements outside of his jail cell.
BRADY: We told him to explain himself. He was accused of raping and murdering and burying two little girls in the desert. So, he told us to mind our own business, that we didn’t know the whole details about what was going on, and he got away with it before and he was going to get away with it again.
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BISCOBING: Did he admit to doing it to any other children to you guys? Or to just mind your business, and I’ve gotten away with it before?
BRADY: Yeah, he said he’s gotten away with it before, and something in Oregon. Some small time in Oregon somewhere.
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BISCOBING: Do you remember more about what he said about that?
BRADY: He said when he was younger, he was a teenager, I guess, he said when he was a teenager, he had gotten away with it in Oregon.
Clements has a criminal history in Oregon for multiple crimes.
In 1998, he was convicted of sexually abusing a small child in Oregon when Clements was a teenager. He also was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender in the state nine years later.
BISCOBING: When he said those things to you -- about the kid in Oregon, the fact that he got away with it before and he will get away with it again – describe his demeanor, his face, what was his tone like?
BRADY: He was just sure he was going to get away with it. Like he’s been doing this for years and nobody can touch him. He thought he was invincible.
Clements did not discuss other specific states or crimes to Brady or Spencer. Brady said they didn’t give him the opportunity because they had heard enough.
BRADY: Me and my celly (sic) assaulted him and beat the (expletive) out of him.
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BRADY: After the fight, when they were handcuffing him and put us into holding tanks, he was screaming out the whole time that nobody can touch him and the cops are never going to pin anything on him. He’s gotten away with it many times before, and he wasn’t worried about it at all.
BISCOBING: So even after they were taking him away from you, he was essentially bragging about it?
BRADY: Yeah, the whole time.
Sources say investigators are hoping to speak to more of Clements’s jail mates. They believe he may have spoken about possible crimes to others.
BISCOBING: People are going to see my story, my reporting, and think this guy, meaning you, he’s not a good guy, why are we talking to him….What is it that you’re hoping, by speaking to me, will happen?
BRADY: I hope the families get closure. Closure they’ve been waiting for, for years. I hope he gets what he deserves.
Eric Kessler, Clements’ lead defense attorney, released the following statement:
The information contained in your email is new to the defense team. The prosecutor has not disclosed any such investigations, nor has the prosecution disclosed that inmate Derrick Brady, who admitted to assaulting Mr. Clements before being sentenced to the Department of Corrections until at least 2030, has information related to Mr. Clements or is otherwise cooperating with any law enforcement agency, including the FBI. This type of information is required to be disclosed to the defense in compliance with Mr. Clements' Constitutional rights and protections. It would be improper for the defense to comment upon information that as yet has not been disclosed to the defense by the prosecutor for independent analysis and verification.
The Tucson Police Department, Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Pima County Sheriff’s Office, and the FBI all declined to comment specifically about the allegations in this story or any investigations they’re conducting of Clements.
