A man was sentenced to 25 years to life imprisonment on Monday for the murder of his 7-month-old son, whose body was never found.
Jake Haro, 32, pleaded guilty to killing baby Emmanuel Haro last month and was handed his sentence at the Riverside Hall of Justice in California.
Haro was charged with one count each of murder, assault on a child under eight causing death, and filing a false police report.
Highlights
- Jake Haro was sentenced to 25 years to life for murdering his 7-month-old son Emmanuel, whose body was never found.
- Haro pleaded guilty to murder, assault on a child under eight causing death, and filing a false police report.
- The couple falsely reported Emmanuel’s abduction, leading to a public search before police uncovered their lies.
Jake Haro was sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder of his baby son Emmanuel
His wife, Rebecca Haro, 41, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder and will appear before a court hearing in January.
The couple initially told police that Emmanuel had been abducted outside a store in Southern California in August, claiming Rebecca had been knocked unconscious.
The report sparked significant attention, with authorities and members of the public coming together to search for Emmanuel.
Investigators with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department discovered inconsistencies in the story and soon found that the couple had lied.
Image credits: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
They were arrested on August 22, and prosecutors believe evidence shows that Emmanuel died due to multiple acts of abuse and that repeated assaults led to the boy’s death.
A source told NewsNation that Haro admitted to an undercover police officer, posing as a prison inmate, that he killed Emmanuel and dumped his body in a trash can.
According to the source, Haro told investigators that he accidentally smothered Emmanuel while he was sleeping and then buried his body.
“The lies told in this case only deepened the tragedy of Emmanuel’s death,” Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said.
Image credits: San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department
“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.”
Haro was also handed an additional six-year term for a previous child abuse conviction that he was on probation for at the time.
In that case, he left his daughter Carolina with severe and lasting injuries after viciously assaulting her when she was 10 weeks old in 2018.
According to court documents obtained by People, the newborn was taken to hospital with extensive injuries, including multiple new and healing bone fractures, retinal hemorrhages, and brain injuries.
Haro had a previous conviction for child abuse
Image credits: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
At a news conference last month, Hestrin said the girl, who is not Rebecca’s daughter, is “permanently bedridden” and suffers from “cerebral palsy that is a result of long-term child abuse.”
Haro was sentenced to a six-year suspended prison sentence in that case, which he will now serve.
He was also sentenced to 180 days for filing a false police report and another eight months for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Haro was further ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution and was credited with 551 days for time served.
“Jake Haro murdered seven-month-old Emmanuel but, in reality, he comes before this court having taken the lives of two young children. If there are lower forms of evil in this world, I am not aware of them,” Brandon Smith, assistant district attorney in Riverside County, wrote in court filings, CNN reported.