MARANA, Ariz. (KGUN) — Police reports in the case of a Marana man charged with murder by leaving his child in a hot car, claim a history of irresponsible, dangerous behavior towards his children.
“Please baby, please! Anything!”
Christopher Scholtes was pleading for his daughter to pull through and survive after hours in a hot car on a hot July day. Marana Police reports suggest by that time, she and the family’s other children had survived years of dangerous, irresponsible behavior.
Police found this text exchange from March 11th: These are excerpts:
The child’s mother says: “You haven’t shown me you can stop putting the girls in danger or not treat me badly. Even yesterday you drove home drunk with two minors….I’ve been asking for three years to cut back and it’s actually gotten worse…You replaced Cocaine with alcohol.” In this exchange Scholtes concedes he’s an addict.
Marana Police say they found store surveillance that showed at least two instances of Scholtes shoplifting beer, two or three cans at a time.
Police say neighbors described several incidents where children from the family wandered the neighborhood unsupervised—-apparently without Scholtes knowing they were out of the house.
On March 21 the mother asks:
“Why were you going 138 with our baby in the car?”
Scholtes replies: “You hate me. And she was sleeping. It’s fine.”
On July 9th, the day the child died, the mother is on the way to the hospital with her daughter.
She texts Scholtes and says:
“I told you to stop leaving them in the car. How many times have I told you?”
He replies: “Babe, I’m sorry.”
Police say security cameras in the neighborhood show Scholtes parked the family’s blue SUV at 12:51. He said he left the engine and air conditioning on but knew the car would stop automatically in 20 to 30 minutes.
By the police timeline the two year old had been in the car for more than an hour and ten minutes when Scholtes began browsing the internet. A computer search shows over a half hour, he visited a shopping site, then spent five minutes watching pornography videos.
No one removed the child and tried to save her until her mother came home at about 4:15pm—about three and half hours after police say surveillance cameras saw Christopher Scholtes park the car and walk away.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
