A father left his two-year-old daughter to die in a hot car while he watched pornography inside his home, a court has been told.
Christopher Scholtes, 37, has been charged with the first-degree murder of his toddler, Parker, after he left her a vehicle in the sweltering 32C heat in July last year.
His 2003 Acura had been left running with its air conditioning switched on before he got distracted, a court in Tuscon, Arizona heard.
Mr Scholtes was allegedly watching porn, drinking booze and playing on his PlayStation as his car turned off, leaving his daughter to die in the extreme heat.
Pima County Medical Examiner said first responders found the temperature inside the vehicle exceeded 42C when they arrived on the scene.
The medical examiner ruled that the two-year-old girl’s cause of death was heat exposure.
Texts between Mr Scholtes and his wife Erika as the frantic husband rushed to the hospital revealed that this was not an isolated incident.
The mother said: “I told you to stop leaving them in the car, how many times have I told you.”
She added: “We’ve lost her, she was perfect”.
The medical examiner ruled that the 2-year-old girl’s cause of death was heat exposure
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Mr Scholtes replied: “Babe I’m sorry! How could I do this. I killed our baby, this can’t be real.”
The wife of the suspected killer works at Banner University Medical Centre – the same facility to which two-year-old Parker was rushed.
In court, she defended Mr Scholtes, saying that the death was down to a “mistake”.
The couple’s two other children told police that their father often left the three of them in the car.
Mr Scholtes was allegedly watching porn, drinking booze and playing on his PlayStation as his car turned off
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The children told police officers that their father “got distracted by playing his game and putting his food away”.
Court documents revealed that between 2.02pm and 2.30pm, the suspected murderer searched for pornography and clothes online.
Mr Scholtes had visited a petrol station and a supermarket before leaving his daughter in the sweltering vehicle.
The court heard that he had shoplifted alcohol from both shops, which he drank as his daughter was dying from heat exposure.
The accused is alleged to have left his toddler in the car between 12.53pm until after 4pm, when his wife had come home from work.
After the mother asked her husband where their daughter was, the pair raced to the car to attempt to get her out.
Despite the arrival of paramedics shortly afterwards, she died in hospital just one hour later.
