A father charged with the murder of his two year old daughter, has been granted permission to jet off on holiday with his family in Hawaii before his trial later this year.
Christopher Scholtes, 38, from Arizona, reportedly requested to travel to Hawaii with his wife and their two surviving daughters from May 1 to May 9, court documents filed in Pima County Superior Court show. On April 3, Judge Kimberly Ortiz agreed to consider the request and later approved Scholtes’ petition on April 15.
This trip comes 10 months after the tragic death of Scholtes’ two year old daughter, allegedly left in his car while he was playing in video games, the Mirror reports.
Scholtes’ wife discovered their daughter unconscious in the vehicle upon returning home three hours later, according to an interim complaint. The temperature inside the car reached 43C (109F) at the time.
Scholtes reportedly informed Marana Police detectives that after completing errands that day, he left his daughter in the car with the air conditioning running while she slept in her car seat. He allegedly knew that his car’s engine automatically shuts off after 30 minutes.
His two daughters, then aged six and nine, also reportedly told officers that their father had previously left them alone in the car for extended periods. His wife allegedly warned him repeatedly to stop leaving the children in the vehicle in a text exchange.
“I told you to stop leaving them in the car, how many times have I told you,” his wife said, as per the legal documents.
“Babe, I’m sorry,” Scholtes replied. “We’ve lost her, she was perfect,” his wife added.
“Babe our family. How could I do this. I killed our baby, this can’t be real,” he said.
Following a thorough examination of the evidence, the Pima County Attorney’s Office charged Scholtes with premeditated murder and deliberate child abuse.
At his initial court appearance, he entered a plea of not guilty to all counts. In March, Scholtes turned down a plea bargain offered by the prosecution that would have downgraded the charge to second-degree murder in exchange for a guilty plea, PEOPLE reports.
Shortly after spurning the plea offer, Scholtes made an application to the court for permission to holiday in Maui with his relatives. Judge Ortiz granted the request but imposed conditions that Scholtes must adhere to all parole terms, including regular check-ins with pretrial services during his vacation, and barred him from unsupervised contact with any minors, including his own offspring.
The prosecution team requested that Scholtes be ordered to relinquish his passport prior to his trip, but Judge Ortiz dismissed this proposal.
Scholtes’ trial is now set for October 27, having been postponed from its initial September commencement. Should he be found guilty, Scholtes could face life imprisonment.