A two-year-old girl di£d in her father’s car after the toddler was left in the vehicle for 3 hours while the dad allegedly watched pornography, prosecutors claimed in a new court hearing.
Christopher Scholtes, 37, is said to have been “distracted” by the X-rated videos when he left his youngest daughter, Parker, inside a car parked in the driveway of his home in Arizona, in the US, the New York Post reports.
At the time, the southwestern state was experiencing a scorching 109-degree (43°C) day last summer, according to MailOnline.
Prosecutors said the careless dad was also playing video games and drinking beers as his daughter d!£d from heat exposure inside the vehicle – a 2003 Acura – on July 9, 2024.
Before returning home, Scholtes also allegedly left Parker alone in the car at a service station and a supermarket, where surveillance footage is believed to have captured him stealing cans of beer, according to court documents obtained by the outlet.
Scholtes first claimed he left the sleeping child in the car with the airconditioning blasting for 30 minutes after returning home from shopping at around 12:30pm because he didn’t want to wake her.
But court records later suggested he zoned out on video games for more than three hours, until his horrified doctor wife, Erika, came home at 4pm and found the child unconscious in his car.
The young girl was pronounced de@d an hour later at Banner University Medical Center – the same hospital where her mother worked as an anaesthesiologist.
The dad later reportedly admitted that he knew the vehicle’s engine would automatically shut off after 30 minutes.
Erika scolded her husband in a series of text messages after the tragedy that described a disturbing pattern of neglect, court documents showed.
“I told you to stop leaving them in the car,” the devastated mother said during the heartbreaking exchange, in which she called her youngest daughter “perfect”.
“How many times have I told you?”
Scholtes later replied, admitting that he “k!lled our baby” and apologising.
Scholtes’ two other daughters told cops their dad sometimes left them alone in the car while he “got distracted by playing his game and putting away his food,” according to police records.
His older daughter – whom he shared with another woman and lost custody of earlier this year – had also been abandoned in her father’s car in the past, but she was old enough to know how to restart the vehicle to keep the rest of the children alive, the 16-year-old girl’s family told police, the outlet reported.
Scholtes is also accused of repeatedly physically abusing his eldest daughter, according to the Department of Child Services, which reported that he frequently slapped her, threw her, and slammed her head against walls.
Despite being charged with first-degree murd£r for the alleged heinous k!lling – to which he has pleaded not guilty – the father-of-four’s wife has remained by his side, calling the tragic incident a “big mistake”.
Following his arrest, police bodycam footage emerged that showed officers trying to desperately save the little girl after being found in the hot car.
In the video, police officers can be seen beginning CPR in a bid to save the toddler.
As first responders perform emergency health care, the 37-year-old father can be seen pacing the property and is heard crying out for his youngest child.
“Please baby, please …” he begs.
“I can’t believe this … Oh my god.”
