TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Christopher Clements will not be getting a new trial in the death of 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez. Judge James Marner denied a re-trial request Monday, Nov. 7.
In late September a jury found Clements guilty in the June 2014 kidnapping and killing of Gonzalez.
It’s routine in complex cases for defense attorneys to claim there were enough mistakes or bad rulings in a trial to justify a new one.
They questioned other points of evidence and procedure but Judge Marner ruled the case was still strong enough to leave Clements' conviction in place.
Clements is set for trial in February for the disappearance and death of 6-year-old Isabel Celis.
The prosecution conceded it did not have anyone who witnessed Christopher Clements put Maribel Gonzalez in his car and drive her away to her death.
The state’s case depended on the weight of circumstantial evidence—including pictures of young girls on Clements' iPads. Prosecutors said that suggested an obsession with young girls.
A prosecution expert said cell phone tracking showed shortly after midnight Clements phone headed north, probably up I-10, then spent an extended period connected to a cell phone tower that served the remote part of Avra Valley where Maribel’s body was found.
Medical examiners could not determine exactly what killed Maribel. There was no gunshot wound, no stab wounds, no sign of drug overdose. They suggested asphyxiation as a possible cause of death but said advanced decomposition interfered with ways to confirm that.
Clements defense suggested the case might not be murder at all—that Maribel died of natural causes or undetected drug overdose and that someone had simply dumped her body where it was found.
DNA was an issue in the case. A sample recovered from Maribel Gonzalez body could not be read at 5 of 23 key locations. DNA expert witnesses said the sample was good enough to include Clements in a group of males who could have been the source of the sample, but that group could also include all males on the paternal side of Clements’ family and one in 8,600 males in the general population.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
