Inset: Christopher Scholtes (Pima County). Background: the police response (KOLD).
A grand jury has upgraded the murder charge against the father who allegedly left his 2-year-old daughter to die in a hot car while he binged PlayStation.
Christopher Scholtes, 37, previously faced a charge of second-degree murder, but is now charged with first-degree murder after the indictment on Thursday in Pima County, Arizona, according to Tucson ABC affiliate KGUN. As in the beginning, he also must contend with a count of child abuse.
Authorities have said that Scholtes arrived home and left the victim, his 2-year-old daughter Parker, in his vehicle. He allegedly asserted he did not want to wake her, so he left her there with the air conditioning on. Surveillance footage, however, did not sync up with his story, officers said. Police claim he arrived home at 12:53 p.m., though he asserted he arrived at about 2 p.m.
The wife, Erika Scholtes, returned home from work at about 4 p.m. Police said she arrived to discover the vehicle was no longer running and the AC was off.
She spoke on his behalf at his bond hearing, saying the death was a mistake and did not represent him, according to video obtained by KVOA.
Court documents, however, stated that her texts indicated that 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,” she texted him as Parker was on her way to the hospital, Tucson NBC affiliate KVOA reported.
Authorities say they spoke to Scholtes’ two other daughters, ages 5 and 9, both of whom reportedly confirmed that he would regularly leave them alone in the car. In this case, they told police that Scholtes came home from running errands and then “he got distracted by playing his (video) game and putting his food away,” per KOLD.
Surveillance video did not show defendant Scholtes checking on the vehicle or his daughter, police wrote in an affidavit, according to USA Today.
“When she asked where the 2-year-old was, he began to check the rooms of the home and then realized he had left her in the vehicle,” they said.
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
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