Arizona father pleads not guilty in daughter’s hot car death

TUCSON, AZ (13 News) - First-degree murder and child abuse are the charges for Chris Scholtes, who left his 2-year-old daughter in a hot car outside his Marana home last month.

Scholtes said very little in court on Thursday, Aug. 8, and appeared quite different from the mugshot of him that is below.

Scholtes entered a plea of not guilty against the charges after leaving his 2-year-old daughter in the family car outside their Marana home on July 9. It was 109 degrees outside and the child’s body temperature was 108.

“There’s two ways of getting first-degree murder,” said defense attorney Louis Fidel, who is not representing Scholtes.

Fidel said that while a premeditated first-degree murder charge does not seem to fit, felony first-degree murder could apply when another felony is being committed, such as child abuse.

“If somebody dies either during the course of the commission of one of those felonies or during flight from one of those felonies, that can be prosecuted as first-degree murder,” Fidel said.

Scholtes remains out of custody. In the interim complaint, he told Marana Police the girl was asleep and the car’s air conditioning was on. But the family’s Acura MDX has an automatic shut-off feature he knew about and while he said the girl was in the car for about 45 minutes, video from neighboring property shows he came home just before 1 p.m. and didn’t know about the girl in the car until his wife came home about 4 p.m.

Text messages between the two have his wife saying she has told him times before to not leave the kids in the car. Scholtes has two other children, aged five and nine and one said Scholtes got distracted playing a video game.

“Careless or not, extremely careless, this is a thing that happens. People do forget that a kid is in the back of the car,” Fidel said.

If this goes to trial, a jury could still convict Scholtes on a lesser charge. A case management hearing is scheduled for next month and pretrial conference is in October.

The medical examiner has ruled the girl’s cause of death to be environmental heat exposure and the manner of death was ruled an accident.

According to the interim complaint, Scholtes’ other two children, ages 9 and 5, said their father had left all three children alone in the vehicle regularly and stated that “he got distracted by playing his game and putting his food away,” when their sister was in the car.

A PlayStation was taken by authorities as part of the ongoing investigation, as well as several other electronics. The vehicle, a 2023 Acura MDX, was also taken by detectives.

The interim complaint also shows Scholtes received text messages from his wife while their daughter was being transported to the hospital stating: “I told you to stop leaving them in the car, How many times have I told you”

He responded, “Babe, I’m sorry!” She then said “We’ve lost her, she was perfect,” and he responded by texting “Babe our family. How could I do this? I killed our baby, this can’t be real.”

Scholtes told investigators he knew his vehicle had a safety feature that would turn off the engine after 30 minutes. He said he knew from a previous experience.

According to court documents, the temperature was 109 degrees at the time of the call, according to the document. The vehicle was parked in direct sunlight with the car seat on the driver’s side of the vehicle, which was a west-facing window.

Scholtes told investigators he usually parked the vehicle in a garage but didn’t on July 9 because exercise equipment was in the way.

The incident happened in the driveway of the family home in the 5100 block of West Paytons Court, which is near Cortaro and Interstate 10.

Scholtes made his initial court appearance on July 12 and a not guilty plea was entered by the judge. He was later released to pre-trial services, but the state had asked for a $1 million bond.

Scholtes’ wife spoke during his appearance and said she wants him back home with their other children to begin the grieving process. She also said he is not a risk to the community.

Police said Scholtes told officers he took his daughter on some errands and then went home. She was asleep in her car seat, so he left her in the vehicle while he went inside.

He claimed he left the vehicle running with the AC on. When he went back outside, the car was off and his daughter was unconscious. She was transported to a Tucson hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Authorities said Scholtes’ timeline of events does not match security video from a neighbor.

Scholtes said they got home around 2 p.m., but security video shows the vehicle arriving around 12:53 p.m. and it didn’t leave again.

Around 4 p.m., Scholtes’ wife came home from work and asked where her daughter was. That is when Scholtes and his wife ran outside to check the vehicle.

They called 911 and then brought their daughter inside the home. They and first responders tried to revive her.

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