An Arizona father hung his head in shame as he made his first court appearance since being charged with the careless death of his infant daughter, who was left to die in a hot car.
Christopher Scholtes, 37, faced first-degree murder charges brought by a grand jury on Thursday after originally being arrested on a lesser charge of second-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
He was arrested last month after his two-year-old daughter Parker was found unconscious in his car outside their home in Marana, Arizona, on a day when temperatures hit 109°F.
Scholtes’ other children, ages 5 and 9, told police the boy spent the afternoon playing video games, and investigators said neighborhood surveillance showed Parker may have been left unattended for more than three hours.
Christopher Scholtes was seen in court Thursday, where the charges against him were upgraded from second-degree murder to first-degree murder in the death of his daughter.
Her 2-year-old daughter Parker Scholtes died in a hot car outside her home on July 6 after she was allegedly left there for three hours on a 109°F day.
The escalation of charges against Scholtes from second-degree murder to first-degree murder is significant and shows prosecutors believe the father intentionally killed his daughter.
While second-degree murder is generally based on reckless conduct leading to death, first-degree murder requires that the death was premeditated and deliberate.
At his first court appearance on Thursday, Scholtes, dressed in a grey suit, appeared to hang his head in shame but remained silent as the formal notice of charges against him was served.
He only briefly spoke a few words in court and declined to speak to reporters after the hearing, according to KGUN9.
On the day Parker died, July 6, Scholtes told police he arrived home around 2:30 p.m. and left his daughter in the car because she was sleeping. His wife found her when she returned from work at 4 p.m.
However, Arizona detectives said they obtained neighborhood surveillance that showed Scholtes’ Honda Acura SUV actually arrived around 12:50 p.m.
Scholtes told police that when she got home, Parker (pictured next to her) was asleep in the backseat and she didn’t want to wake her up.
Scholtes’ wife, Erika, a doctor, found her daughter unconscious after arriving home from work, and Parker was tragically pronounced dead after being rushed to hospital.
Parker in a family photo taken in March with his parents and two older sisters, who reportedly told police that Christopher had often left them in the car with the air conditioning on.
Scholtes’ children reportedly said he routinely left them in the car with the air conditioning on, and police said he understood the vehicle to automatically shut off after 30 minutes.
When Parker’s mother, Dr. Erika Scholtes, 35, returned home, she asked her husband where her daughter was and Christopher reportedly searched the house for her before remembering she was in his car.
Temperatures that afternoon reached 109 degrees in Arizona, and Parker was rushed to her mother’s hospital, Banner University Medical Center Tucson, where Erika worked as an anesthesiologist.
Tragically, Parker was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Text messages exchanged between Christopher and Erika at the time showed her berating her husband, telling him: “I told you to stop leaving them in the car. How many times have I told you that?”
He replied, ‘Honey, I’m sorry!’
“We lost her. She was perfect,” Erika replied.
Scholtes replied: “Honey, our family. How could I do this? I killed our baby. This can’t be real.”
Parker with his mother Erika and two sisters outside their Tucson home on Halloween, just yards from where he died.
In heartbreaking text messages, Erike Scholtes berated her husband over the tragedy, saying: “We have lost her. She was perfect.”
Scholtes posted adorable photos of the little girl online, including one his wife took in February of this year of him sleeping while cuddling with the little girl, which he captioned: “A father’s comfort.”
Scholtes posted a photo of his wife in the operating room on International Women’s Day with a post celebrating her achievements.
Scholtes faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder, and while the death penalty is on the table under state law, KGUN9 reports that the Pima County District Attorney typically does not seek the death penalty.
Scholtes and Erika began dating on October 19, 2012, according to a post Scholtes made on their 10th anniversary.
“Ten wonderful years with this woman. Can’t wait for the rest!” he wrote.
The couple reportedly took several vacations together during the year leading up to Parker’s death.
They shared several smiling selfies from these trips, including a ski trip in Banff in February with their older daughters and a beach vacation in Cancun in March with the entire family.
The couple also traveled to Europe in June, Seattle in October and Sedona in June of last year, just the two of them.
Parker was born in late October 2021 and within weeks took his first trip to Disneyland with his parents and two older sisters.
Scholtes posted adorable photos of the little girl online, including one his wife took in February of this year, showing him sleeping while cuddling with the little girl.
“This is what I call a father’s comfort,” the father, who also coached his daughter’s softball team, wrote alongside the photo.
Another photo showed a drawing she made with crayons, titled “artist in trouble,” and another with her dressed up.
“He represents a menace to society, with his hat tilted to the side as his attitude and his ferocious pitbull ready to attack,” Scholtes wrote.