After two days of deliberation, jurors in the murder case of Isabel Celis have been unable to succeed in a unanimous verdict Friday and remained deadlocked on the murder cost in opposition to Christopher Clements in Superior Court docket in Tucson. The decide known as for a mistrial shortly after 4 p.m.
Eleven years after Isabel’s disappearance rocked the southern Arizona metropolis, Clements faced a jury at a trial on multiple charges associated to her dying. Expenses in opposition to Clements, 41, included first-degree murder, kidnapping a minor underneath 15, and housebreaking.
Choose James Marner, who oversaw the three-week trial, mentioned he obtained a letter from jury members stating that they remained in a impasse on the primary rely. He requested if extra time would assist them break the impasse. The jury foreperson replied no, and the jury was excused.
A gathering was scheduled for 4 p.m. March 27 to handle the opposite two fees in opposition to Clements.
Isabel disappeared from her bed room in a single day in April 2012. 5 years later, Clements led authorities to a distant desert space in Marana, north of Tucson, the place they discovered bones later confirmed to be the lady’s stays.
Attorneys had presented their closing statements to jurors on Wednesday.
In a earlier trial that ended Sept. 30, Clements was convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping of 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez, who disappeared when strolling to a buddy’s home one night in June 2014 in Tucson.
Her physique was discovered close to West Avra and Trico roads. Clements was sentenced to pure life in jail plus a 17-year jail time period for kidnapping a teenage sufferer, to be served consecutively with the life sentence.
In accordance with the Related Press, Clements already was serving a jail sentence of as much as 35 years for a Maricopa County housebreaking in 2017.
Clements additionally now faces an extra cost of creating or possessing a weapon — in this case, a sharpened pencil — in reference to an incident on Feb. 7, in keeping with info supplied Tuesday by the Pima County Superior Court docket.
Protection of southern Arizona on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is funded by the nonprofit Report for America in affiliation with The Republic.
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This text initially appeared on Arizona Republic: Jury deadlocks in Isabel Celis murder case in Tucson; mistrial called
