A murder charge has been brought against a man in connection with the death of his two-year-old daughter, who tragically perished after being left unattended in a hot car for almost three-and-a-half hours.
Christopher Scholtes, aged 37, faces allegations that he left his youngest daughter, Parker, inside a car parked in his driveway on a scorching summer day last year. Prosecutors claim that the temperature inside the car, left under the sweltering sun, could have soared up to 81 degrees Celsius during the incident.
It is alleged that Scholtes was engrossed in playing video games and consuming alcohol while his daughter, secured in her car seat, succumbed to the extreme heat on July 9, 2024.
Legal authorities assert that Scholtes was also viewing explicit content during the same period. However, a request to introduce evidence related to his alleged online activities has been denied by Judge Kimberly Ortiz, who ruled that such information should not be presented in the trial.
While testimony regarding Scholtes’ brief search for inappropriate material on a gaming console has been restricted, prosecutors are permitted to bring up past instances where Scholtes’ children were left unattended in vehicles, despite prior warnings from law enforcement.
Initially, Scholtes claimed he had left Parker sleeping in the car with the air conditioning running for only 30 minutes after returning from shopping. However, subsequent evidence revealed that he was engrossed in gaming for over three hours until his wife, Erika, a doctor, found the unconscious child upon her return.
In a tragic turn of events, Parker was declared deceased an hour later at the same hospital where her mother worked. Erika had texted her husband upon discovering the situation, expressing her previous warnings about leaving children in cars unattended.
Investigators have also reported that Scholtes’ surviving daughters, aged six and nine at the time, disclosed being left alone in the car on other occasions. Additionally, Scholtes’ eldest daughter, from a previous relationship, had also experienced being left in the car before but was capable of restarting the vehicle to ensure the safety of the other children.
Despite facing a first-degree murder charge, Scholtes’ wife has stood by him, characterizing the incident as a “big mistake” during court proceedings. Scholtes rejected a plea deal that would have involved a guilty plea to a lesser charge with a specified prison term, opting to proceed to trial where he now potentially faces a life sentence if convicted.