An Arizona father accused of leaving his daughter to die in a hot car while he was inside playing on his PlayStation has rejected a plea deal in connection with her death.

Christopher Scholtes declined a deal which would have seen his charges for the murder of Parker Scholtes, two, reduced from first to second degree murder.

His refusal means the matter will now move to a trial where if convicted he could face life in jail or even the death penalty.

By comparison, the sentence for second-degree murder is a maximum of 25 years in jail.

Scholtes pleaded not guilty in August and plea deal negotiations began in November. His trial is set for October this year, AZ Family reports.

The father-of-three, 37, allegedly left his daughter in their blue 2023 Honda Acura SUV to nap for three hours while he played video games last summer.

She was discovered unresponsive by her mom outside the family home in Marana, north of Tucson, Arizona on July 9.

Erika Scholtes, who works as a doctor at the hospital where Parker was declared dead, found the toddler inside the car 4:08pm according to surveillance footage.

Minutes later an anguished Scholtes called 911 and was coached through CPR.

The Pima County Medical Examiner said the girl's body temperature has reached 108.9F when first responders arrived - almost the same as the 109F outside the vehicle that day.

Marana Police previously charged Scholtes with second-degree murder for the July 9th death, initially ruling manner of his daughter's death as an 'accident.'

But the criminal complaint details how Scholtes' other two children, aged 9 and 5, stated their father habitually left all three children unattended in the vehicle.

On the day Parker died, they told cops their dad, 'got distracted by playing his game and putting his food away', according to the complaint.

A PlayStation and other electronics were taken away as evidence by police.

Text messages between Scholtes and his wife also revealed that this was not the first time Christopher had left their children in a vehicle alone.

'I told you to stop leaving them in the car, how many times have I told you? ... We've lost her, she was perfect,' a text message from Erika read according to the court documents.

'Babe our family. How could I do this. I killed our baby, this can't be real,' Scholtes replied.

During a court hearing, Erika called in to offer her support for her husband and called the incident 'a big mistake.'

'This was a big mistake and I think that this doesn't represent him,' Erika said.

Scholtes told police he left Parker in her car seat inside the vehicle with the engine running and air-conditioning on because he did not want to wake her up.

He claimed she was there less than an hour after they arrived home, but CCTV footage revealed it was more than three hours in direct sunlight, according to the  criminal complaint.

The father-of-three told police he left the air conditioning in the Acura running but knew it would automatically shut off after about 30 minutes, based on previous experience.