A dad allegedly left his daughter to die in a car for three hours in temperatures over 40C while he played video games inside his house.
Christopher Scholtes, from Arizona, pleaded not guilty last August to murder, after his two-year-old daughter Parker died in the family’s Honda Acura SUV. He was accused of leaving her in the car following a shopping trip while he used his PlayStation.
The toddler was found unresponsive by her mother Erika Scholtes at 4.08pm, according to CCTV footage and she called emergency services.
The Pima County Medical Examiner said Parker’s body temperature had reached 42.7C, which was the same as outside the vehicle that day. The case documents reveal that Scholtes “got distracted playing his game and putting his food away.”
Parker Scholtes, 2, died in a car in front of her home(Image: Instagram)
The 37-year-old has now refused a plea deal where he would have accepted second degree murder over the incident in Marana, north of Tucson, on July 9 and he now faces trial, reported AZ Family.
If he had accepted the deal he could have been sentenced up to a maximum of 25 years in jail. But now if convicted in court he could spend the rest of his life behind bars or even get the death penalty.
Christopher Scholtes has denied murdering his daughter(Image: KGUN9)
Initially, he was charged with second-degree murder, but the indictment was then updated and he was charged with first-degree murder. Scholtes had claimed that his daughter was only left in the car for half an hour and he hadn’t removed her because she was sleeping, but CCTV footage showed that she was in the vehicle for a lot longer.
The couple’s other two daughters also reported that their father frequently left them in the car unattended while he went inside the house. And text messages between the defendant and his wife showed that this was not the first time.
Scholtes was allegedly playing video games while his daughter died(Image: Pima County Sheriff’s Department)
“I told you to stop leaving them in the car, how many times have I told you? … We’ve lost her, she was perfect,” read a text message from Erika, according to court documents.
And the defendant replied: “Babe our family. How could I do this. I killed our baby, this can’t be real.” His wife pleaded for his release as he awaited trial, labelling the deadly error a “big mistake”.
“I’m just asking if you can allow him to come home to us so that we can all start the grieving process, so he can bury our daughter with us this coming week and that we can go through this whole process together as a family,” she implored the judge.
“This was a big mistake… doesn’t represent him,” Erika Scholtes insisted. “I just want the girls to see their father – that I don’t have to tell them tonight that they’re going to have to endure another loss.”
