One would think that after being involved in the death of a child, planning a holiday would be the last thing on your mind. But that’s not the case for Arizona dad Christopher Scholtes. If there were an award for Worst Father of the Year, or even the decade, he’d be a strong contender. Scholtes allegedly left his baby daughter to die from heatstroke in a car while he stayed inside playing video games.
His trial isn’t scheduled until October, but in the meantime, this Arizona dad is planning a family vacation to Hawaii. Even more shocking, a judge approved it. The only condition is that he must not have unsupervised contact with his other children during the trip. That decision alone has raised serious questions, like why his wife would want to vacation with the man accused of killing their child.
Scholtes has pleaded not guilty, even though it is already established that he knowingly left the child in the car. His excuse was that he didn’t want to wake her because she was asleep. Yet, he knew the engine in his car would automatically power down after half an hour. As a result, the vehicle reached deadly temperatures. Both he and his wife were aware of this feature and had even argued about it before. His surviving children also revealed that this wasn’t the first time he left them alone in the car.
The Arizona dad was charged with first-degree murder. He also faced an additional charge of intentional child abuse. At one point, he was even offered a plea deal that would reduce the charge to second-degree murder if he agreed to plead guilty. Despite this opportunity, he refused the deal and maintained that he was not guilty.
Reddit users were quick to criticize Scholtes, questioning how he could prioritize gaming over his own daughter. One user said, “This is exactly why this happened in the first place. This guy is a large child who has never had deal with actual challenges. He lived off his wife so he wouldn’t have to take responsibility, he clearly didn’t care about his children, and he just lived like a large child.”
Others questioned why Scholtes’ wife would still spend time with him after the tragic death of their baby daughter. Many also raised concerns about how authorities could realistically prevent him from interacting with his surviving children during a family vacation. One user sarcastically remarked, “Wonder if the vacation will be to a cool region, just in case (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶).”
