Christopher Scholtes had his scheduled progress hearing this morning, regarding the hot car death of 2 year old Parker, on July 9th. Judge Kimberly Ortiz set a trial date of Sept 15, 2025, it is expected to last 10 days.
The news we’ve been worried about all along came when the prosecutor said they are in contact with the defense team, working out the final details of a plea deal that they will have to them shortly. Next hearing is January 27, 2025 at 1045.
Abstaining from beer appears to agree with Christopher. He somehow looked younger than his last appearance. He didn’t speak at the hearing, but he smiled at someone in the gallery when he left the courtroom.
I’ve got my fingers crossed that this plea deal is going to be less sweet than most. This is the team that changed his charge to 1st degree murder. Christopher’s history speaks for itself, he never considered his children’s safety to be his concern. Whether leaving his diabetic child in the car for hours with only 1 meal that day, driving while drinking with 2 children in the car or driving 138 mph with his 2 year old asleep in the car. Christopher had a lot of luck over the years. Sadly for Parker his his luck ran out on July 9, on a day with temperatures over 110* when he left her in his car so he could play games, look for clothes on line & check out a few minutes of *advertiser censored*. Parker was so far from his thoughts that even making snacks for his other kids didn’t make him question what Parker was doing. Then when his wife returned from work and asked where’s Parker, he ran around the house looking for her before remembering he had left her in the car 3 hours ago. Then, while paramedics tried in vain to restart Parker’s heart Christopher was lying to LE about the length of time she had been in the car and that leaving her that day was one off, that this wasn’t his habit.
The prosecutor and the judge can’t over look what led up to this tragedy. At least I hope they can’t. Because as sweet as his 5 & 9 yr olds were telling LE it was just an accident, he is a good dad. No, it wasn’t an accident and he isn’t a good dad. They stand a much better chance growing up with dad in jail than they do with dad at home with them. We can only hope & pray that their mom comes around to seeing her part in all this and hoping she does better moving forward.