Shame-faced Arizona doctor’s husband is seen for first time since ‘murdering daughter, 2, by leaving her in roasting car for three hours while he played PlayStation’

An Arizona father bowed his head in shame as he appeared in court for the first time since being charged with recklessly leaving his infant daughter to die in a hot car.

Christopher Scholtes, 37, was indicted in court Thursday on a charge of first-degree murder by a grand jury after originally being arrested on a lesser charge of first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

He was arrested last month after his 2-year-old daughter Parker was found unresponsive in his car outside their home in Marana, Arizona, on a day when temperatures reached 108 degrees Fahrenheit.

Scholtes’ other children, ages five and nine, told police he had been playing video games all afternoon. Nearby surveillance cameras showed Parker may have been alone for more than three hours.

His daughter Parker Scholtes, 2, died in a hot car outside her home on July 6 after reportedly being left there for three hours on a day with temperatures of 108 degrees Fahrenheit.

The upgrade of the charge against Scholtes from second-degree murder to first-degree murder is telling and shows that prosecutors are convinced the father intentionally killed his daughter.

While second-degree murder is typically based on reckless conduct resulting in death, first-degree murder requires that the death was premeditated and intentional.

At his first court appearance on Thursday, Scholtes, dressed in a gray suit, appeared to hang his head in shame, but he remained silent as formal charges were filed against him.

He spoke only a few words briefly in court and declined to speak to reporters after the hearing, KGUN9.

On the day Parker died, July 6, Scholtes told police he arrived home around 2:30 p.m. and left his daughter in the car while she was sleeping. She was discovered by his wife when she returned home from work at 4 p.m.

However, Arizona detectives said they obtained surveillance footage from the area that showed Scholtes’ Honda Acura SUV had arrived there around 12:50 p.m.

Scholtes told police that when he got home, Parker (pictured together) was asleep in the backseat and he didn’t want to wake her up

Scholtes’ wife Erika, a doctor, found her daughter unconscious when she came home from work, and Parker was tragically pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital

Parker in a family photo taken in March with her parents and two older sisters, who reportedly told police that Christopher often left them in the car with the air conditioning on

According to reports from Scholtes’ children, he regularly left them in the car with the air conditioning on. According to the police, he understood that the car automatically turned off after 30 minutes.

When Parker’s mother, 35-year-old doctor Erika Scholtes, came home, she asked her husband where their daughter was. Christopher reportedly searched for her throughout the house, only to realize she was in his car.

That afternoon, temperatures in Arizona soared to 108 degrees Fahrenheit and Parker was rushed to her mother’s hospital, Banner University Medical Center Tucson, where Erika worked as an anesthesiologist.

Sadly, Parker was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Text messages Christopher and Erika exchanged at the time showed her berating her husband, telling him, “I told you not to leave them in the car anymore. How many times have I told you that?”

He replied, “Honey, I’m sorry!”

“We lost her. She was perfect,” Erika texted back.

Scholtes replied, ‘Honey, our family. How could I do this? I killed our baby. This can’t be true.’

Parker with her mother Erika and her two sisters in front of their Tucson home on Halloween, just yards from where she died

In heartbreaking text messages, Erike Scholtes criticized her husband over the tragedy, saying: ‘We have lost her. She was perfect’

Scholtes posted adorable photos of the girl online, including one taken by his wife in February of this year of him sleeping and cuddling with the little girl, with the caption: ‘The comfort of a father’

Scholtes posted a photo of his wife in the operating room on International Women’s Day with a message celebrating her achievements

Scholtes faces up to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder. Although the death penalty is a possibility under state law, KGUN9 reports that the Pima County District Attorney’s Office does not typically seek the death penalty.

Scholtes and Erika started dating on October 19, 2012, according to a message Scholtes posted on the occasion of their 10th anniversary.

“Ten amazing years with this woman. Can’t wait for the rest!” he wrote.

It appears the couple had vacationed together several times in the year before Parker’s death.

They shared a number of smiling selfies from these trips, which included a ski vacation in Banff in February with their eldest daughters and a beach vacation to Cancun in March with the whole family.

The couple also traveled through Europe last June, Seattle in October and Sedona in June, just the two of them.

Parker was born in late October 2021 and within a few weeks went to Disneyland for the first time with her parents and two older sisters.

Scholtes posted adorable photos of the girl online, including one taken by his wife in February of this year in which he is seen sleeping against the little girl.

“I call this a father’s comfort,” the father, who also coached his daughter’s softball team, wrote alongside the photo.

Another photo showed a drawing she had made in chalk, captioned “struggling artist,” and another showed her dressed.

“She is a threat to society, her attitude is as skewed as hers, and her aggressive pit bull is ready to attack,” Scholtes wrote.