It is said that a father in Arizona left his 2-year-old daughter in a hot car for three hours on a day when it got as hot as 111 degrees.
Christopher Scholtes, who is 37 years old, is being charged with second-degree murder and abuse of a child or vulnerable adult. As reported by Tucson NBC station KVOA and CBS affiliate KOLD, prosecutors asked for a $1 million bond, but the defense said he was not likely to run away, had only a DUI charge from 15 years ago, and had no history of violence or being a threat to the community. The NY Post said the judge set a $25,000 guaranteed bond, while KVOA said he was free on bail.
Police in the town of Marana, which is near Tucson, said that they and the Northwest Fire District were called to a home in the 5100 block of W. Payton Court on Tuesday because a child had been left in a car and was not responding.
According to the cops, Scholtes told them that when he got home, his 2-year-old daughter was sleeping in her car seat.
Scholtes is said to have told her he didn’t want to wake her up, so he left her in the car with the AC on.
A police report says that his story does not match up with the facts of the case.
Police said in the KOLD report that Scholtes said they got home around 2 p.m. But video footage showed that the car got there at 12:53 p.m. Around 4 p.m., the wife got home from work. They said when she got there, the car wasn’t running and the AC wasn’t on.
“9-1-1 was called, and until NWFD and MPD arrived, the mother did CPR,” police wrote. “The child was taken to Banner University Medical Center after NWFD performed life-saving measures.” The child was unfortunately declared dead.
Detectives from the police department got a search warrant the night of the crime and said they found video footage from homes nearby. Investigators said they found evidence that the girl had been left in the car for about three hours.
Scholtes was arrested early Friday morning and taken to the Pima County Adult Detention Center.
Erika Scholtes, his mother, spoke for him at the hearing on Friday. She wanted him to be with her while she grieved.
According to a video received by KVOA, she said, “This was a big mistake and I don’t think this shows who he is.” “I just want the girls to see their dad so I don’t have to tell them tonight that they’ll be losing someone else.”
Pretrial services thought that Scholtes was the least likely to be found guilty. The judge said that he had strong ties to the community and had never been in trouble with the law before. The first meeting is set for August 1.
