Christopher Scholtes, 38, was found dead on Nov. 5, the same day he was due to turn himself in ahead of his sentencing on Nov. 21
An Arizona man who pleaded guilty to murdering his 2-year-old daughter after she died in a hot car parked in the family’s driveway was found deceased this morning.
Christopher Scholtes, 38, was found on Nov. 5, according to the Maricopa County Coroner records. His cause of death is under investigation. An autopsy will now be performed but results are not expected until early 2026.
Sgt. Brian Bower of the Phoenix Police Department tells PEOPLE that officers discovered Scholtes’s body after responding to a call at 5:22 a.m.
The Pima County Attorney’s Office has yet to comment on Scholtes’s death.
Scholtes died on the same day he was to turn himself in following a court hearing, after which he would have remained in custody until his sentencing on Nov. 2.
Scholtes surprised many last month when, just days before his trial was set to begin, he pleaded guilty to murder for the hot car death of his 2-year-old daughter.
In a statement at the time, the Pima County Attorney’s Office said Scholtes would be facing between 20 and 30 years in prison under the terms of the deal, without the possibility of early release.
Had he gone to trial, Scholtes would have faced the possibility of life in prison or even the death penalty.
The father-of-three was arrested after leaving his youngest child in the car while he sat inside playing video games on July 9, 2024, according to multiple court documents previously filed in the case and viewed by PEOPLE.
Scholtes also allegedly searched for pornography on his PlayStation for a few minutes during that time, but the judge in the case issued an order earlier this month stating that this information could not be introduced at trial.
His wife discovered the child when she arrived home that day, some three hours after Scholtes had returned from running errands with the toddler.
The criminal complaint said that the temperature inside the vehicle that afternoon was 109 degrees.
Pima County
Body camera footage recorded Scholtes admitting to responding officers that he’d left his daughter in the car.
Scholtes told the officers that he left his daughter in the vehicle with the air conditioning on because she was asleep in her car seat, and went inside the family home.
He then claimed that he forgot about his daughter because he was distracted, according to the complaint.
The complaint also said that Scholtes said he was aware that the car engine in his vehicle turns off after 30 minutes, at which point there would have been no air conditioning.
Investigators later interviewed the two surviving daughters, who were 6 and 9 at the time, and both allegedly said that their father had previously left them alone in the car, according to the complaint.
A text allegedly sent to Scholtes by his wife as their daughter was being rushed to the hospital seems to support that claims, as she texted: “I told you to stop leaving them in the car, How many times have I told you?”
Scholtes was released on bail and was ordered not to have any unsupervised time with children, but was later approved to travel to Hawaii with his wife and two surviving daughters ahead of his trial.
He is survived by his wife and their two children.