THE deadbeat husband of a doctor was inside his home watching porn and drinking stolen beers while his two-year-old daughter was dying, locked in a hot car outside.
Christopher Scholtes, 37, has been charged with the first-degree murder of his toddler Parker, after he left her napping in a parked car on a 90F day in July last year.
His alleged X-rated activities were revealed to a court on Tuesday, in Tucson, Arizona, 15 months after leaving his daughter to die.
The court heard he had left his 2003 Acura running with the air-conditioning on before he lost track of time.
As he allegedly became distracted while playing PlayStation, drinking booze and watching pornhis car turned off – leaving Parker to bake to death.
The Pima County Medical Examiner said the temperature inside the car was 108.9F when emergency services first arrived, confirming the toddler had died from heat exposure.
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Texts between Scholtes and his wife Erika allegedly revealed this neglect was a pattern of behaviour 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 followed up with a heartbreaking message: “We’ve lost her, she was perfect.”
In response, Scholtes said: “Babe I’m sorry! How could I do this. I killed our baby, this can’t be real”.
Despite the damning texts, Erika appeared in court on Tuesday, staunchly defending her husband, calling the death of her daughter “a mistake”.
She works as an anaesthesiologist at Banner University Medical Center, the same hospital Parker was taken to.
The pair have two other children – aged five and nine – who told police their father left all three siblings alone in the car on a regular basis.
According to the criminal complaint, the two children told police he’d “got distracted by playing his game and putting his food away”.
On the afternoon of the tragic ordeal, the PlayStation and other electronic devices were seized as evidence.
Prosecutors allege that Scholtes had left Parker alone in the car on his way home that day, after shopping at the supermarket and a gas station.
He had shoplifted beer from both shops, some of which he drank as Parker was roasting to death, according to court documents.
CCTV shows him snatching the alcohol from the gas station when he went into the bathroom with more cans than he exited with.
He arrived home with his daughter at 12:53 p.m., as the older children returned from a trampoline park he’d let them go to unattended.
Prosecutors say he had looked up men’s clothing at Nordstrom as well as porn between 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.
He originally claimed he had arrived home at 2:30 p.m., but changed his story after security footage exposed his deception.
Parker was left to nap in the vehicle as he went inside.
Erika discovered Parker at 4pm, when she returned home from work.
She had come inside, asking where their daughter was, before frantically rushing to the car.
First responders attended the scene a short time later, however nothing could be done.
Parker was declared dead an hour after she was found.
An investigation into her death revealed a disturbing pattern of alcoholism, child neglect and past drug abuse.
The older Scholtes siblings said their parents often argued over their father’s behaviour, particularly his drinking habits.
“He still drinks too much beer, and he keeps leaving us in the car when my mom told him to stop doing this,” said one of the girls, according to police documents.
“That’s how he made my baby sister die.”
Past text messages between the couple show Erika’s increased frustration over her husband’s drinking habits, which left him putting his children’s lives in peril.
“You haven’t shown me you can stop putting the girls in danger or not treat me badly,” she wrote in March, 2024.
“Even yesterday, you drove home drunk with two minors.
“You drink to excess every time. You can never have just one,” she continued.
“I’ve been asking for three years to cut back and it’s actually gotten worse.”
When Scholtes promised to “find relief and happiness elsewhere”, Erika recounted the last time he did that, he replaced booze with cocaine.
In an astounding response, he said “At least this one is legal, right?”
“I’m a piece of s**t addict and I need to get addicted to healthy things like running again.”
Following this exchange, Erika again raged at him via text after he allegedly drove at 138mph after drinking, with Parker in the car.
“You hate me,” he replied.
“And she was sleeping, it’s fine.”
While on bail earlier in the year, Scholtes was given permission by the court to go on vacation to Maui with his wife and surviving daughters.
Scholtes has a recorded history of neglectful behaviour with his oldest daughter – who is now 16 years old.
He shared her with a previous partner.
Investigators were told he would also leave his eldest daughter and Parker’s siblings in the car alone long enough for the air-conditioning to switch off.
Fortunately, his oldest daughter had known how to restart the car, stopping disaster from striking sooner.
She allegedly suffered abuse at the hands of her father, where on one occasion she called the police.
She reported being too scared to return home because she’d lost money and was worried Scholtes would hit her.
Department of Child Service investigators reported the girl 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 lost custody of the girl after her mother died earlier in the year.
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She was given to another guardian.
Scholtes will return to court at a later date.