A father has confessed to the murder of his two-year-old daughter after leaving her in a hot car while he indulged in video games, alcohol, and pornography. The tragic incident has led to a guilty plea from Christopher Scholtes, age 37, during his appearance in Pima County Court, Arizona, on Wednesday.
Scholtes admitted to second-degree murder charges for the death of his daughter, Parker, which occurred in July of the previous year. His sentencing is scheduled for November, where he is looking at a prison term ranging from a minimum of 20 years to a maximum of 30 years, without the possibility of parole.
Despite the serious charges, his wife, Erika, who is a doctor, has continued to support him. Earlier in March, Scholtes turned down a plea agreement that might have reduced his time in prison to as little as 10 years.
Arriving at court on Wednesday, Scholtes remained silent, refusing to respond to reporters’ inquiries about whether he had expressed remorse or apologized to Parker’s grandparents.
Residing in Marana, Arizona, Scholtes left his 2023 Acura with the engine running in 90-degree weather, intending for the air conditioning to keep his daughter cool. However, he lost track of time as he became engrossed in playing on his PlayStation, drinking alcohol, and watching pornography.
Scholtes, of Marana in Arizona left his 2023 Acura running during 90f weather with the air-conditioning on, but lost track of time while he played on his PlayStation, drank booze and watched pornography.
The car switched itself off and Parker died in its searing interior.
The Pima County Medical Examiner said the temperature inside the car was 108.9F when first responders arrived, confirming she died of heat exposure.
Christopher Scholtes is said to have been watching porn while his two-year-old daughter Parker (pictured above being held by her mother Erika) died in a hot car
Parker had been left to sleep in the family’s Acura with its air conditioning turned on. Her father is now charged with her murder
Texts between Scholtes and his wife Erika revealed leaving his children in the car for extended periods was a pattern of behavior for him.
As Parker was rushed to the hospital, Erika texted Scholtes saying: ‘I told you to stop leaving them in the car, how many times have I told you.’
She later added: ‘We’ve lost her, she was perfect.’
Scholtes replied: ‘Babe I’m sorry! How could I do this. I killed our baby, this can’t be real.’
Erika Scholtes was at work as an anesthesiologist at Banner University Medical Center, the same hospital Parker was taken to.
She has stood by her husband and even strongly defended him in court by calling their daughter’s death ‘a mistake’.
Scholtes’s two other children, then aged nine and five, told police their father regularly left all three siblings alone in the car.
The kids told police Scholtes ‘got distracted by playing his game and putting his food away’, according to the criminal complaint.
A PlayStation and other electronics were taken away as evidence.
Prosecutors wrote in court documents that Scholtes also searched the internet for men’s clothing at Nordstrom and for pornography from 2.02pm to 2.30pm.
Erika Scholtes, 35, was an anesthesiologist at the same hospital her daughter was rushed to
Scholtes also left Parker alone in the car on his way home that day while he shopped at a gas station and a supermarket.
He shoplifted beer from both shops, some of which he later drank while Parker was dying, according to the documents.
Security camera footage showed him swipe the alcohol from the gas station, go into the bathroom, and emerge with fewer cans than he went in with.
Scholtes finally arrived home at 12.53pm, just as his older daughters returned from a trampoline park he let them go to unattended.
He initially told detectives he pulled in at 2.30pm, but changed his story after it was proven a lie by security footage.
Scholtes’s two other children, aged nine and five, told police that Scholtes had left all three siblings alone in the vehicle regularly
Parker was left to nap in the car while they all went inside, and was not retrieved until after 4pm when Erika got home from work.
Erika came inside and asked where the toddler was, prompting a frantic rush to the car by both parents and the arrival of first responders soon after.
Parker was declared dead in hospital just an hour later.
Investigations into how she died revealed a disturbing pattern of alcoholism, child neglect, and past drug abuse.
The older daughters said their parents often fought about Scholtes’s behavior, especially how much he drank.
‘He still drinks too much beer, and he keeps leaving us in the car when my mom told him to stop doing this,’ one of the girls said, according to documents.
‘That’s how he made my baby sister die.’
Other texts between the couple showed Erika increasingly furious about her husband letting his drinking put the children’s lives at risk.
‘You haven’t shown me you can stop putting the girls in danger or not treat me badly,’ she wrote on March 11 last year.
Scholtes, 37, was charged with murder after leaving his two-year-old daughter (pictured as a newborn) in the back of a hot car in 109F heat while he was inside their house
Police outside the house in Marana, north of Tucson, Arizona, as they investigated the scene. Parker was left in the blue Honda Acura SUV behind the police tape
‘Even yesterday, you drove home drunk with two minors. You drink to excess every time. You can never have just one. I’ve been asking for three years to cut back and it’s actually gotten worse.’
Scholtes promised to ‘find relief and happiness elsewhere’ but Erika countered that the last time he did that he merely replaced booze with cocaine.
‘At least this one is legal, right?’ he replied.
‘I’m a piece of shit addict and I need to get addicted to healthy things like running again.’
But just ten days later she raged at him for allegedly driving 138mph after drinking, with Parker in the car, calling both ‘shitty decisions’.
‘You hate me,’ he replied. ‘And she was sleeping, it’s fine.’
While on bail, the court gave Scholtes permission to go on vacation to Maui with his doctor wife Erika and their surviving children earlier this year.
Scholtes also had a history of similar behavior with his oldest daughter, now 16, whom he had with a previous partner.
Some of her family told investigators that back then, he also left her and his other two daughters in the car alone long enough for the air-conditioning to shut off.
Scholtes was allowed to go on holiday to Hawaii with his wife Erika Scholtes, who has stood by him and even strongly defended him in court, and their children earlier this year
Fortunately, the older girl knew how to restart the car and prevent them all from meeting the same fate as Parker.
Scholtes was also allegedly abusive towards the eldest girl, and she on one occasion called police to say she was afraid to go home because she lost some money and was worried her father would hit her.
Department of Child Services investigators wrote in their reports that she told them ‘she would frequently be slapped, thrown, have her hair pulled, have her head pushed into walls, and be picked up by her shirt or her arm’.
Scholtes eventually lost custody of the girl and after her mother died earlier this year she was instead given to another guardian.
