TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — In the Christopher Clements child murder trial, late Friday jurors saw video of when detectives first asked Clements if he knew anything about the sexual assault and murder of Maribel Gonzalez.
The other issue in testimony Friday: Did Christopher Clements cell phone place him where Maribel Gonzalez body was found?
Just before the break to the weekend jurors saw video of detectives asking Clements about Maribel Gonzalez. He’s wary, suspicious, unwilling to say much, asking what brought them to him, at that time (2017) three years after Maribel’s body was found. He says I didn’t rape or kill anybody, and also says, "I have two kids of my own and I love them to death. If this girl is 13 as you say I feel bad for the parents."
Clements claimed detectives might tamper with evidence as he resisted a search warrant instructing detectives to take a sample of his DNA but finally complied when detectives pointed out they could physically force him to submit to a blood draw. They also said they could extract a sample from a soda can he had just been drinking from.
Valerie Calonge, Maribel’s mother, did not show much emotion watching that video of Clements but was overcome watching earlier testimony that involved cell phone tracking of where Clement phone was the night Maribel disappeared.
Earlier testimony offered a rough idea of where Clements' phone went the night Maribel Gonzalez disappeared but could not be precise enough to absolutely place Clements where the girl’s body was found.
Three days after she disappeared Maribel Gonzalez's body was found in a remote spot west of I-10 in Avra Valley.
In court, Sy Ray described how he learned how to track cell phones from many years of police work, then he developed a company that sells cell phone tracking software.
In previous testimony Clements now ex girlfriend Melissa Stark described him leaving the house after an argument, returning about midnight, demanding bleach, taking her car to get bleach, returning, then getting in his car and disappearing until early morning.
Stark said Clements was worried she might have looked in his car trunk while he was shopping for bleach.
Ray described Clements' phone moving about midtown the evening Maribel Gonzalez disappeared, but he says the phone left Tucson after midnight, headed north, northwest, and possibly up Interstate 10.
He says the movement of Clements phone slowed down a little after 12:30 a.m. while it was connected to a cell tower that served the part of Avra Valley where Maribel was found. But Ray said the tracking technology does not pinpoint positions and becomes less precise in rural areas that have fewer antennas and weaker coverage.
In later testimony, Ray interpreted the data to suggest Clements and his phone were on both I-10 and adjoining side roads until just before 2:30 a.m. when the phone shut down and could no longer be tracked.
When the phone came back on the network, it was 6:43 a.m. and the phone was back in Tucson.
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Marcos Icahuate joined the KGUN team in September 2022. He previously worked on digital content in Southern California's Imperial County where he was raised.
