Man Allegedly Let 2-Year-Old Daughter Die In Hot Car While He Played Video Games

PIMA COUNTY, Ariz. (WKRC) – A father just had his aggravated murder charge upgraded after he allegedly let his 2-year-old daughter die in a hot car while he played his PlayStation.

Police say Christopher Scholtes, 37, was previously charged with second-degree murder, but that charge was upgraded to first-degree murder by a grand jury. The charge is in addition to child abuse.

Police say Scholtes arrived home and left his daughter, Parker, in his vehicle. He reportedly told police he didn’t want to “wake her up,” so he decided to leave her in the car with the air conditioning on, but surveillance footage doesn’t support his story. He reportedly told police he arrived home around 2 p.m., but police say he arrived home at 12:53 p.m.

Then his wife, Erika Scholtes, came home from work around 4 p.m. When she arrived home, she found the car was off and the air conditioning wasn’t working, according to the New York Post.

At his bail hearing, his wife spoke on his behalf, telling the court that the death was a mistake and did not represent him as a father. But court documents argue otherwise. Those documents said there were text messages that showed he had previously left his children in the car unattended.

“I told you to stop leaving them in the car. How many times have I told you that?” Erika asked in a text message as she headed to the hospital.

Authorities also spoke to the couple’s two other children, ages five and nine. Both children said their father regularly left them alone in the car. They said that in this case, their father came home from running errands and “became distracted playing his games and putting away his food.”

Surveillance video obtained by police does not show him checking the vehicle or his daughter.

“When she asked where the 2-year-old girl was, he began checking rooms in the house and then realized he had left her in the vehicle,” police said.

The temperature inside the vehicle reached 108.9 degrees by the time authorities discovered his lifeless body, according to azcentral.