Jake Haro, the father of missing baby Emmanuel, whose shocking disappearance activated an army of internet sleuths, was sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder of his 7-month-old son.
Haro, 32, who initially pleaded not guilty, reversed course and pleaded guilty on Oct. 16 to one count each of murder, assault on a child under 8 causing death and filing a false police report, according to the Riverside County district attorney’s office.
He and his wife, Rebecca Haro, 41, reported that their son was kidnapped after someone attacked her in a Yucaipa parking lot on Aug. 14. But detectives quickly found holes in their story and charged both parents with murder.
On Monday, Haro received a sentence of 25 years to life for murder as well as a 180-day sentence for the false police report.
Because he committed these crimes while on probation, he must also serve a sentence of six years and eight months that he previously received in a child abuse case, prosecutors said.
Emmanuel Haro was reported kidnapped, but his parents later faced murder charges.
(San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department)
Haro was convicted of felony willful child endangerment in 2023 after his baby daughter was taken to the hospital in 2018 with a skull fracture, several healing fractures to her ribs, a brain hemorrhage, swelling in the neck and a healing tibia fracture in her leg, according to a police affidavit for an arrest warrant.
A judge later suspended that sentence — a decision that Riverside County Dist. Atty. Mike Hestrin lambasted at an Aug. 27 news conference.
“If that judge had done his job as he should have done, Emmanuel would be alive today,” Hestrin said. “That’s a shame and it’s an outrage.”
Haro has been credited with 551 days of time served and, as a result of the aggregated charges, will spend a minimum of 30 years in prison before he becomes eligible for parole.
Although baby Emmanuel’s body has yet to be found, prosecutors believe that multiple acts of abuse and physical assault led to the boy’s death.
The mother has maintained her not guilty plea to charges of murder and filing a false police report. She is due back in court for a felony settlement conference on Jan. 21, prosecutors said.
“The lies told in this case only deepened the tragedy of Emmanuel’s death,” Hestrin said in a Monday statement. “While today’s sentence represents a measure of accountability for Jake Haro, our office will continue to seek justice as the case against his co-defendant moves forward.”
Prosecutors allege that the couple deliberately faked the child’s kidnapping. When investigators with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department questioned the mother about inconsistencies in her police report, the couple stopped cooperating.
A week later, they were arrested at their Cabazon home. In August, authorities removed another 2-year-old child from the couple’s custody and scoured a field in Moreno Valley accompanied by Haro in a jail jumpsuit.
Baby Emmanuel’s remains have yet to be found.
Times staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
