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Caaleruga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Red Carter. Monday November tenth,
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twenty twenty five. Wednesday morning, Phoenix, Arizona, Christopher Schultz, thirty
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eight years old, was supposed to walk into Pima County
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Superior Court and surrender to custody. He'd pleaded guilty to
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second degree murder in October, facing twenty to thirty years
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in prison. Sentencing scheduled for November twenty first, but Sholties
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never showed up because Tuesday night, he took the coward's
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way out killed himself at his one million dollar home,
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found dead around five am Wednesday. The crime he was
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supposed to answer for July ninth, twenty twenty four, scorching
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Arizona summer one hundred nine degrees. Scholtes left his two
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year old daughter, Parker, in the car air conditioning on,
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said he'd be right back, then spent over three hours
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inside drinking beer, playing PlayStation, and watching pornography. The car's
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engine automatically shut off after thirty minutes. He knew it would.
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He'd done it before. Parker roasted to death body temperature
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one hundred eight point nine degrees when paramedics arrived. Now
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he's dead, never served a day in prison. His seventeen
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year old daughter from a previous marriage told her guardian
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she wasn't surprised. I knew he was going to do this,
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she said, now she wants to fight her stepmother for
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custody of her half sisters. And Monday morning, another father
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answered for his crimes. Anthony Milan Ross, fifty three year
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old celebrity vegan chef, found guilty of three counts of
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first degree murder December twenty fifth, twenty seventeen, Christmas Day,
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posted a video that morning singing Santa Claus Is coming
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to town with his eleven year old son Nigel, smiling,
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wishing everyone happy holidays. Hours later, he shot his estranged
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wife Iris outside their Phoenix apartment, then went inside and
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murdered Nigel and nine month old daughter Anorra. Six hours
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stand off with police, shot at officers, all three family
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members dead. Google search history revealed he'd been planning it
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for weeks, search for firearms, battery acid, sulfuric acid, skin
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melting acid, silencers, and specifically families murdered on Christmas Day.
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Prosecutor said he warned others to expect something big on
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Christmas sentencing scheduled for January ninth, twenty twenty six. Arizona
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has the death penalty. I'm red Carter today. Two fathers,
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two family annihilators. One took the coward's exit, the other
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will face justice. This is celebrity trials. Let's start with
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Christopher Schultez because this story is infuriating on every level.
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July ninth, twenty twenty four, Marana, Arizona, north of Tucson,
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summer in the desert. Temperature that day hit one hundred
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nine degrees, the kind of heat that kills. Christopher Schulte's
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thirty seven at the time, had three daughters, ages nine, five,
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and two. Two year old Parker was the youngest. That morning,
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Parker's older sisters went to a trampoline park with friends unsupervised,
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because apparently leaving children unattended was just standard operating procedure
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in the Schultz's household, Schultz took Parker with him to
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run errands. Security footage from that morning shows him at
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multiple locations with Parker in the back seat. Around noon,
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he stopped at a gas station on West Twin Peaks
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Road twelve oh seven pm to twelve ten PM, walked
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straight to the beer cooler, grabbed three cans, went into
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the bathroom, emerged with fewer cans than he went in with,
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shoplifted beer, left the store without paying, Parker waiting in
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the car the entire time. Then he drove to a
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grocery store, more shoplifting, more beer. Parker, still in the
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car alone, two years old, strapped in her car seat,
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finally arrived home at twelve fifty three pm. Security footage
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from neighbors homes confirms the exact time, not one thirty,
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not two thirty, twelve fifty three. This will be important later,
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Parker was asleep, Schultez made a decision. Instead of waking
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her up and bringing her inside, he left her in
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the twenty twenty three Acura engine, running air conditioning on.
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Figured she'd be fine. He'd done this before. Here's what
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Schultes knew. The car had an automatic shut off feature.
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After thirty minutes, the engine would turn off. He knew
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this from previous experience, had been warned about it. Did
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it anyway. He went inside the house. Older daughters arrived
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home shortly after from the trampoline park. They all went
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inside together. Nobody checked on Parker. So what did Christopher
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Schultz do for the next three hours while his two
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year old daughter baked to death in a car. He
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drank the beer he'd stolen. He played PlayStation, He searched
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the internet for video games and men's clothing at Nordstrom,
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he watched pornography. From two two pm to two thirty pm,
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he was actively viewing adult videos. The car's air conditioning
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shut off around one twenty three pm, thirty minutes after
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he got home. Parker was now trapped in a car
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in one hundred nine degree heat, no air circulation, windows up,
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direct sunlight, a literal oven. Around four pm, doctor Erica
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Schultez arrived home from work. She's an anesthesiologist at Banner
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University Medical Center. She came inside asked where Parker was,
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the question every mother asks when she gets home. Where's
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the baby? Christopher Froze suddenly remembered, ran outside. The other
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daughters ran outside. Erica ran outside. Parker was in the car,
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limp unresponsive, body temperature one one hundred eight point nine degrees.
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Erica immediately started CPR. Christopher called nine to one one
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four five PM. Paramedics arrived rushed Parker to Banner University
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Medical Center. The same hospital where her mother worked, same
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emergency room where Erica saved lives every day. They couldn't
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save Parker. Pronounce dead within an hour. Pima County Medical
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Examiner confirmed cause of death heat exposure. The toddler had
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been in that car for over three hours. Temperature inside
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the vehicle peaked at over one hundred eight degrees. Body
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camera footage shows Christopher's Schulties in the immediate aftermath, pacing frantic,
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telling police this was his worst nightmare. At one point,
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officers told him he couldn't take a shower, couldn't be
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left alone evidence collection standard procedure in a death investigation.
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Schulti's got angry. So I'm being treated like a murderer, yes,
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because as you are one. Initially, Schulte's told detectives he
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arrived home around two thirty PM only left Parker in
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the car for thirty to forty five minutes max. But
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security footage proved he was lying. Arrived at twelve fifty
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three pm. Car never moved again. Parker was alone for
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three hours and twelve minutes. When confronted with the timeline,
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Schulte's changed his story, admitted he lost track of time,
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was distracted playing video games, putting food away, forgot she
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was in the car. But here's what makes this so
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much worse. This wasn't the first time. Schultez's two older
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daughters told police their father regularly left all three of
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them in the car. He got distracted by playing his
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game and putting his food away. One of them said,
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that's how he made my baby sister die. The other
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daughter said their parents fought constantly about Shulty's drinking and
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his habit of leaving the kids in the car. My
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mom told him to stop doing this. He still drinks
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too much beer, and he keeps leaving us in the
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car when my mom told him to stop. Text messages
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between Christopher and Erica confirmed the pattern. After Parker died,
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Erica texted him, I told you to stop leaving them
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in the car. How many times have I told you?
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Christopher replied, Babe, I'm sorry. How could I do this?
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I killed our baby. This can't be real. But those
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texts weren't just from July ninth, twenty twenty four. They
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went back months years. March eleventh, twenty twenty three, Erica
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texted Christopher, you haven't shown me you can stop putting
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the girls in danger or not treat me badly. Even
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yesterday you drove home drunk with two miners. You drink
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to excess every time, you can never have just one.
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I've been asking for three years to cut back, and
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it's actually gotten worse. Christopher promised to find relief and
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happiness elsewhere. Erica countered that the last time he did
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he did that, he replaced booze with cocaine. At least
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this one is legal, right, Christopher replied, I'm a piece
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of shit addict, and I need to get addicted to
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healthy things like running again. Ten days later, March twenty first,
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twenty twenty three, Erica texted Christopher furious about him driving
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one hundred and thirty eight miles per hour after drinking
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with Parker in the car. Shitty decisions, Christopher's response, You
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hate me and she was sleeping. It's fine. Make it
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make sense. A father admits he's an addict, admits he
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drives drunk with his children, admits he leaves them in cars.
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His wife begs him to stop, he doesn't, and then
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Parker dies exactly the way everyone knew she would. July
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twenty twenty four, Christopher Schulte's arrested for second degree murder.
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But here's where the system failed again. He was released
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without bond, never spend a day behind bars, got to
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go home, got to live in his house, got to
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see his surviving daughters. March twenty twenty five, prosecutors offered
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him a plea deal, plead guilty to second degree murder,
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served ten to twenty five years. He rejected it, said
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he wanted to go to trial, claimed it was an accident.
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His case was upgraded to first degree murder after a
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grand jury indictment. Trial scheduled to begin October twenty twenty five,
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but just days before trial, Christopher changed his mind accepted
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a worse plea deal, plead guilty to second degree murder
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and felony child abuse, twenty to thirty years in prison,
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sentences to run consecutively October twenty second, twenty twenty five.
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Sentencing scheduled for November twenty first, but judge ordered him
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to surrender to custody on November sixth. Would be taken
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into custody immediately held until formal sentencing. In the meantime,
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while awaiting surrender, Schultis and his wife, Erica, had moved
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packed up everything left Marana, drove ninety four miles to Phoenix,
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bought a one point zero two five million dollar house,
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four bedrooms, two thy three hundred sixty nine square feet,
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brand new life, Fresh start. The legal bills must have
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been brutal. Schulties pleaded not guilty. Initially hired expensive defense attorneys,
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rejected the first plea deal, went all the way to
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the edge of trial before accepting a worse deal. All
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of that costs money, but they had money. Erica is
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a doctor anesthesiologist six figure salary. They could afford, the house,
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could afford, the lawyers could afford to pretend everything was
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fine while they were out on bail. The court even
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gave them permission to take a vacation Hawaii, Maui. Christopher,
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Erica and their two surviving daughters family trip making memories,
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because apparently killing your toddler doesn't disqualify you from tropical getaways.
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While awaiting sentencing your tax dollars at work. Tuesday night,
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November fifth, twenty twenty five, Christopher Schultees took his own
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life at the Phoenix house. Details aren't public yet, his
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family told The Daily Mail he took an overdose of
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pills exact method doesn't really matter. Dead is dead. Wednesday morning,
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November sixth, Phoenix police responded to the home near Seventh
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Street and Northern Avenue around five am. Found Schult's body
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pronounced dead at the scene. Christopher Schultz was supposed to
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appear in court that morning. Judge Kimberly or Tees took
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the bench. Prosecutors were there, defense attorneys were there. Everyone waiting.
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Then the judge recessed. Immediately, prosecutors and defense hustled into chambers.
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Came out minutes later, looking shaken. Judge or Tez vacated
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the hearing, kept the sentencing date of No. Two twenty
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first on the calendar. Nobody explained what happened. Representatives from
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the Pima County Attorney's office said to expect a statement.
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Hours later, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover released a video statement.
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We expected to be in court this morning because the
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father had accepted a plea agreement to second degree murder,
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which could have carried as much as thirty years in prison,
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instead of coming in to take account for what has
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occurred here. We have been informed, and we have confirmed
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that the father took his own life last night Connover said,
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prosecutors and a senior victim advocate drove to Marana to
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deliver the news to Parker's grandmother, Christopher's mother, the woman
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who gave him the life he threw away. This is
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obviously extraordinarily complicated, and we extend our deepest sympathies and
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sorrow to all the loved ones who have suffered the
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loss of this beautiful baby girl and now another loss
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to his family. Conover said, this little girl's voice was
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nearly silenced because justice was not served appropriately this morning.
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Then Conover addressed Parker's surviving sisters directly. May you be
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surrounded by love. May you receive all of the support
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you deserve and need, and then some May you know
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and believe that you can survive and thrive when you
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look back on this time as the years follow, May
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you not feel tied down by what happened here, but
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rather lifted up by your baby sister's wings. Beautiful words,
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but they don't change the outcome. Christopher Schulties will never
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serve a day in prison, never face the consequences of
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his actions, never sit in a cell and think about
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what he did to Parker. He took the coward's exit.
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His seventeen year old daughter from a previous marriage wasn't surprised.
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Lindsay Eisenberg, the teen's former guardian, told The Daily Mail.
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She broke the news about Christopher's suicide. She said, I
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knew he was going to do this. I knew he
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was going to commit suicide. Then she asked for her
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Her sisters were okay. The teenager also sued Christopher and
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Erica last week civil lawsuit for emotional distress, claims she
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suffered abuse at their hands, seeking damages over Parker's death.
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Neither Christopher nor Erica responded before he killed himself. Now,
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the teen wants to pursue the civil suit against Erica
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even harder. She wants to fight her for custody of
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her little sisters when she's eighteen and two weeks. Eisenberg said.
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Erica Schultez is hold up in the Phoenix house with
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the two surviving daughters. Whether she was home when Christopher
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killed himself isn't clear. There's no suggestion of wrongdoing on
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her part. She's never faced criminal charges, but she enabled him.
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Those text messages proved she knew he was dangerous, knew
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he left the kids in cars, knew he drove, drunk
237
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with them, stayed with him anyway. Parker Schulte's was two
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years old. Should be three now, Should be learning to
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talk in full sentences, Should be playing with her sisters,