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Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US
A California father broke down in tears as he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of his 7-month-old son Emmanuel Haro, whose body still has not been found.
Jake Haro, 32, appeared in the Riverside courtroom on Thursday where he also pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm to a child and filing a false police report, according to KABC.
Both Haro and his 41-year-old wife Rebecca Haro, were arrested and charged in August after the mother claimed her infant son had been kidnapped. They initially pleaded not guilty to first degree murder and filing a false police report. It’s unclear if Rebecca will enter a new plea.
Emmanuel was first reported missing on August 14 after his mother said that while she was changing his diaper outside a Big 5 sporting goods store in Yucaipa, California, she was “physically assaulted by an unknown male and rendered unconscious,” according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
She said that when she woke up, Emmanuel was gone.
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In interviews with L.A. media in the following days, Emmanuel’s mother said the last word she heard before allegedly being knocked out was a stranger saying “hola.”
With a visible black eye, she claimed the family was in the area for another child’s football practice and she had gone to the store to buy a mouthguard.
Two days after his reported disappearance, the parents begged the public for answers and urged the alleged kidnapper to “just give our son back.”
Both parents were initially cooperative with authorities but stopped after being confronted with inconsistencies in the mother’s story, according to police. A massive search was launched but Emmanuel has never been found and is now presumed dead, officials say.
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At a press conference in August, officials said evidence showed that Emmanuel was abused over time, and they believe the baby eventually died from injuries from the ongoing abuse.
Prosecutors later said Haro admitted to abusing his infant son between August 5 and August 14, before lying to investigators about what happened, according to KTLA.
“He was abused over a period of time,” Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said at the same. “Both parents would have been aware of that abuse.”
Court records show Jake Haro was convicted of willful child cruelty in 2023, following a case in 2018 in which his infant daughter with a previous partner suffered multiple severe injuries, including a skull fracture, brain hemorrhage, and broken ribs.
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Haro and his then-wife, Vanessa Avina, pleaded guilty to abusing their daughter. In that case, Haro was sentenced to 180 days in a sheriff’s work-release program and ordered into a child abuser treatment program.
“She is still alive today, but she is permanently bedridden,” Hestrin said about that child at the time. “She has permanent damage — cerebral palsy — that is a result of long-term child abuse.”
Rebecca Haro, however, has no known criminal history.
She has continued to proclaim her innocence from custody and is being held at the Robert Presley Detention Center, while her husband is at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility.
Haro is scheduled to be sentenced on November 3.
