Conover admitted that this was a “complicated situation” before applauding the prosecutors who worked on the case and offering her sympathy to Scholtes’ family.
She concluded her remarks by addressing Scholtes’ two surviving kids, who have lost a sister and their father in the period of just two years.
“I’d like to close by speaking directly to our little girl’s big sisters, whom I have yet to meet. May you be surrounded with love. May you obtain everything you deserve and need, and then some. Conover said, “May you know and believe that you can survive and thrive.”
Scholtes’ choice to plead guilty to murder just days before his trial began surprised many last month.
At Scholtes’ plea hearing, the Pima County Attorney’s Office stated that under the conditions of the plea agreement, they would propose a sentence of 20 to 30 years in prison, with no option of early release.
Scholtes might have received a life sentence or even the death penalty if he had been found guilty at trial.
Police caught Scholtes a few days after his youngest child Parker died in his automobile on July 9, 2024, while parked in the family’s driveway.
He was inside the house playing video games and, at one point, looking for pornography.
Prior to Scholtes’ decision to accept a guilty plea, the judge in the case ordered that prosecutors could not mention these pornographic searches at trial.
His wife discovered the child when she returned home that day, approximately three hours after Scholtes had returned from running errands with the youngster.
The criminal complaint said that the temperature inside the vehicle that afternoon was 109 degrees.
Scholtes admitted to responding cops, via body camera evidence, that he had left his daughter in the car.
Scholtes informed the officers that he left his daughter in the car with the air conditioning on because she was sleeping in her car seat, then walked inside the family home. According to the lawsuit, he then stated that he was distracted and had forgotten about his daughter.
According to the lawsuit, Scholtes stated he was aware that his vehicle’s engine cuts off after 30 minutes, leaving no air conditioning.
Investigators later interrogated the two surviving children, who were 6 and 9 at the time, and both allegedly stated that their father had previously left them alone in the car, according to the complaint.
A text purportedly received to Scholtes by his wife while their daughter was being brought to the hospital appears to back up those claims, as she texted: “I told you to stop leaving kids in the car. “How many times did I tell you?”
Scholtes was released on bail, and the judge overseeing the proceedings allowed him to travel to Hawaii for a family vacation with his wife and two surviving kids prior to his trial.
