Christopher Scholtes “distracted” by PlayStation while his two-year-old daughter died in hot car

An Arizona father is accused of murder for leaving his 2-year-old daughter in a sweltering car for more than three hours, where she was too busy playing PlayStation games while the toddler died, new reports show.

Christopher Scholtes, a 37-year-old father of three, claimed he left little Parker Scholtes sleeping in his 2023 Acura MDX for just 30 minutes after returning home from shopping because he didn’t want to wake her.

But recently released court documents show he played video games for more than three hours – until his horrified wife, a doctor, came home and found the girl dead in his car, KPLC-TV News reported.

“I told you not to leave her in the car anymore,” anesthesiologist Erika Scholtes complained in text messages to her husband after the July 9 tragedy, the outlet reported.

“How many times have I told you?”

“Baby, I’m sorry,” the accused of murder is said to have replied. “Baby, our family. How could I do this? I killed our baby, this can’t be true.”

Erika Scholtes called Parker “perfect” during the heartbreaking exchange.

Christopher Scholtes told police he arrived at their home in the Tucson suburb of Marana around 2:30 p.m. and parked the car outside because the garage was full of exercise equipment.

He said he forgot the girl was still in his car seat before his wife came home at 4 p.m. and made the horrific discovery.

But surveillance footage analyzed by police shows that he arrived at the house shortly after 12:30 p.m. and left Parker in the car for more than three hours in 108-degree heat, KPLC reported.

According to a complaint filed in the case, Christopher Scholtes was “distracted by his game and putting away his food” – while the couple’s other two children told police that their father regularly left all three siblings alone in the car while he was at the house.

The inattentive father told police he left the air conditioning on in the car for Parker, but admitted he knew it would automatically turn off after 30 minutes, the report said.

When Christopher Scholtes was charged with murder and child endangerment in court on Friday, his wife pleaded with the judge to release him pending trial, calling the fatal blunder a “big mistake.”

“I’m just asking if you can allow him to come to our home so we can all begin the grieving process, so he can bury our daughter with us next week and so we can go through this whole process together as a family,” she told the judge.

“This was a big mistake and does not represent him,” said Erika Scholtes. “I just want the girls to see their father – that I don’t have to tell them tonight that they have to suffer another loss.”

The judge set bail at $25,000, although prosecutors had requested bail of $1 million.