A father from Arizona was charged with murder after leaving his two-year-old daughter inside a hot vehicle for over three hours.
According to reports, Christopher Scholtes was playing games on his PlayStation when the child died.
He claimed that he only left his daughter inside the vehicle for around 30 minutes.
Court documents revealed that the father was playing games for over three hours before his horrified wife found the child dead inside the vehicle.
An anesthesiologist, Erika Scholtes, then told her husband to stop leaving the kids inside the car in a text message, according to KPLC-TV.
The text message revealed that the child’s killer asked his wife how many times she had asked him about his actions.
He then confessed to her and said he killed the child. According to Erika, Parker was “perfect” before she died.
Christopher then told police that he arrived home at around 2:00 p.m. and parked the vehicle outside due to the garage’s lack of exercise equipment.
According to Christopher, he forgot that the child was still in the car seat when he arrived home.
However, surveillance footage showed that he arrived at around 12:30 p.m. and left the child inside the vehicle for over three hours.
A criminal complaint stated that Christopher was playing games while his wife was at work.
The couple’s other children, who were not with him, told the police that their father would leave them alone in the car whenever he was at home.
According to Christopher, he only left the air conditioning on for about 30 minutes.
However, he admitted that he knew that the device would automatically turn off once the temperature inside the vehicle reached over 90 degrees.
On Friday, as Christopher faced the court, his wife asked the judge to release him so they can start the grieving process.
She noted that the incident had been a big mistake. The judge agreed to allow Christopher to return home to be with his family.
Erika said that the incident was a big mistake that shouldn’t represent her husband. She also urged the court to allow her children to see their father.
The judge set Christopher’s bail at $25,000. The prosecutors had asked for a $1 million bond.
