UPDATE 10/23/2025 11:00 A.M. PST: This case is now much closer to being resolved, and without the messy details being replayed in court.
Christopher Scholtes, the Pima County dad who left his 2-year-old daughter in the car for three hours in the Arizona heat — apparently while playing video games and looking at porn, has changed his plea to guilty.
The Pima County Attorney’s Office posted to their Facebook on Wednesday:
“Today, Christopher Scholtes accepted a plea agreement and pled guilty to one Count of Second-Degree Murder and one Count of Intentional/Knowing Child Abuse under Circumstance Likely to Cause Death or Serious Physical Injury.”
All that’s left is the sentencing now. Per the update:
“Under the terms of the plea, the sentences imposed by the judge are going to run consecutively, and Scholtes will face a sentencing range of 20 to 30 years of flat time (meaning he’s not eligible for early release, he must serve the full sentence imposed by the court) in the Department of Corrections for murdering P.S. on July 9, 2024.”
Minimum 20 years flat time. Wow. Even with the guilty plea, it doesn’t sound like they’re taking it easy on him. What do YOU think of this outcome, Perezcious paralegals?
Last year we heard one of the most egregious stories of a parent leaving their child in the hot car. Per a shocking criminal complaint, Christopher Scholtes claimed he left his 2-year-old daughter in the car after getting home to avoid waking her up. But what he said was just 30 minutes was estimated by authorities to be THREE HOURS. Outside in the Arizona heat. The temperature peaked in the area at 120 degrees that day. Dear lord…
Scholtes reportedly got on his Playstation while putting away groceries and just forgot his daughter Parker. His wife discovered the child still in the car when she got home. He never remembered his daughter. Erika Scholtes, an anesthesiologist, was the one who called the cops. She also said she’d told him to stop leaving the child in the car, meaning he’d made a bad habit of it. Awful to consider.
His two older children were the ones who told police their dad “got distracted by playing his game and putting his food away” and forgot. They also told investigators he’d left them in the car previously, too. But it sounds like it was even worse than video games distracting him.
Related: K-Pop Star Going To Prison For Child Abuse
Scholtes is facing trial for first-degree murder and intentional child abuse starting on October 27. And a new court filing before the trial has revealed he wasn’t just playing video games. Per the Pima County Attorney’s Office in a motion of admissibility, the now-38-year-old was using the Playstation to SEARCH FOR PORN!
Wow. Utterly disgusting. If this man was really thinking about porn while his daughter was still in the car, that’s just… despicable. That, perhaps, is why Judge Kimberly Ortiz won’t allow prosecutors to tell the jury about it?
Her Honor rejected the motion, stating in a decision obtained by People, “the State is precluded from any eliciting testimony in its case in chief regarding the Defendant looking for pornography on the PlayStation before [his daughter’s] body is discovered.” She also made clear any experts the prosecution calls will also be “precluded from mentioning Defendant’s two-minute search for pornography on the Playstation on July 9, 2024.”
Close call for the defendant. We imagine that kind of information might get him instantly convicted. Of course, if it’s true we’re not sure why it’s barred. But we aren’t lawyers.
BTW, Scholtes was given the option to plead guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder but rejected it and chose to keep his not guilty plea. We guess we’ll find out in a couple weeks if the jury will have mercy on the grieving father or not…
[Image via Pima County Sheriff’s Department]
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