Shocking courtroom words of predator Christopher Clements who snatched girl, 6, from her bedroom as she slept before murdering her, as he is sentenced to spend rest of his life in prison

Courtroom footage captured the moment a sick predator, who murdered a six-year-old girl, launched an unhinged rant as he was sentenced to life in jail. 

Christopher Clements, 42, was convicted of murdering Isabel Celis in 2012 after snatching her from her parents' bedroom. 

He had previously been convicted of murdering 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez, whose remains were found in the same Arizona desert as Celis.

At Pima County Superior Court on Wednesday he read a rambling and confused statement, branding his conviction a 'Stalin show trial of the Soviet era' and 'Hitler's fascist government'.

'I still maintain my innocence,' he said. 'It's inconceivable how any person with even a semblance of pragmatism or objectivity could call what just happened a fair trial.' 

Isabel Celis, 6, vanished from her parents' home in 2012, before her remains were later found in the Arizona desert 

Christopher Clements was convicted of murder in February. He was already serving a life sentence for a separate killing 

At his sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Clements launched into a rambling rant where he compared his conviction to a 'Stalin show trial of the Soviet era' 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 vanished when he told FBI agents he could lead them to her remains in exchange for charges in another case being dropped. 

He was arrested in 2018 over the deaths of Celis and Gonzalez, and sentenced to serve the remainder of his life behind bars for the latter murder in 2022.  

Using long-winded and often nonsensical phrases in his five-minute-long sentencing statement on Wednesday, Clements slammed his trial as unjust, particularly taking aim at Pima County Superior Court Judge James Marner. 

'Using Joseph Stalin's show trials of the Soviet era to try and illustrate that the trials of the United States nomenclature as being diametric of the iniquitous nature of those carried out at the behest of the late Russian dictator,' he said. 

Directing his remarks at the judge, he continued: 'I'm not sure if you were simply repeating some platitude that you gleaned from law school or the History Channel in an effort to embellish the very (unintelligible) of your court.

'Or if you were operating a passive acknowledgement of the proceedings overseen by your predecessor, and from that point the jury deliberations overseen by yourself could be seen as anything but fair.' 

Speaking in an emotionless manner, he added that the prosecuting case against him would make Russian dictator Joseph Stalin 'proud'.

Clements was already serving a life sentence for the 2014 murder of Maribel Gonzalez, 13 (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 that he could lead them to Celis' remains in exchange for charges in another case being dropped. He maintained that he did not commit the murder 

Celis' remains were found in the Arizona desert (seen in police bodycam 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's inconceivable how any person with even a semblance of pragmatism or objectivity could call what just happened a fair trial,' he said. 

Clements previously faced trial in 2023, which resulted in a hung jury. He argued that the judge ensured his guilty verdict the second time around.  

'You assured those jurors that I would not be getting out of prison, and your sentiment and bias went from your own mouth' to jurors, he said. 

'Your actions helped ensure a guilty verdict was all but 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, Joseph Stalin's purges and show trials.' 

'I still maintain my innocence, even if such innocence has never been presumed by anybody in this court or the community in which it operates.' 

The judge had allowed Celis' family to exit the courtroom to avoid hearing Clements' sentencing statement. 

Following the conclusion of the trial, the killer's attorney said of the case: 'I cannot think of a sadder, more depressing case than this' 

Clements previously faced trial in 2023, which resulted in a hung jury. He argued that the judge ensured his guilty verdict the second time around 

Clements own lawyer, Eric Kessler, added at the hearing that in his 41-year career he 'cannot think of a sadder, more depressing case than this.'

He added: 'I’m so sorry for the Celis family and the ripple effect through the Celis family. I wish that I could do something about that, but there isn’t. But, it’s that emotion, I fear, that doomed Mr. Clements, regardless of what the evidence was.' 

Following the verdict, Celis' father Sergio said: 'We are all going to serve a life sentence... of this inescapable nightmare.' 

Her mother, Rebecca, added that their home never felt like one again, because Isabel's 'favorite place in the world was home, and he ruined that.'

She said she was glad to see Clements serve the rest of his life behind bars, which was needed for him to 'process God's wrath, which is inescapable.'