A California father who begged the public for help finding his seven-month-old son, Emmanuel only to later plead guilty to his murder will spend at least the next 30 years behind bars.
Jake Haro, 32, dabbed at tears as he was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Gary Polk on Monday.
The hearing came just weeks after he changed his plea to second-degree murder, assault causing bodily harm to a child ‘resulting in the death of said child’ and filing a false police report.
Haro was sentenced to 25 years to life on the primary charge of child abuse resulting in death.
He was given an additional six years behind bars for his previous child abuse conviction and another eight months for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Haro will be given credit for about a year and a half of time served, but will be forced to pay $10,000 in restitution.
His wife, Rebecca, 41, who claimed Emmanuel was stolen from her during a violent attack, is facing a separate trial. She denies the charges against her.
‘While no sentence can possibly vindicate the loss of innocence and life at the hands of Mr. Haro – a man who was supposed to protect these previous and defenseless children against evil and harm, the sentence here is the most the court can do to ensure that as much justice is done as possible,’ Polk ruled, according to the Independent.
Jake Haro, 32, was seen dabbing at tears as he was sentenced to serve at least 30 years behind bars for the death of his infant son
Haro pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder, assault causing bodily harm to a child ‘resulting in the death of said child,’ and filing a false police report in connection with his seven-month-old son, Emmanuel’s, disappearance
As the judge read out the sentence for what he called the ‘senseless assault and murder’ that claimed Emmanuel’s life, Haro was seen dabbing at tears.
Haro refused to speak at the hearing, while his mother-in-law called for him to receive the maximum sentence and blamed the justice system for giving him a second chance.
Mary Beushausen declared in her 10-minute-long remarks that Haro ‘destroyed my whole family’.
‘He had a second chance,’ she told the judge. ‘My daughter didn’t have a chance with him. His children didn’t have a second chance.
‘I think the judge that let him go should be here sitting with him,’ Beushausen said, adding that Haro never let her meet her grandson, according to ABC 7.
On August 14 Rebecca Haro, Haro’s wife and Beushausen’s daughter, reported being attacked outside a retail store on Yucaipa Boulevard while changing her son’s diaper.
She told deputies she was knocked unconscious by an unknown man and awoke with a black eye to find her son missing, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said.
The report triggered an extensive search for the missing infant, as the couple appeared on local news channels pleading for the safe return of their infant.
Emmanuel’s parents, Rebecca and Jake, went on local news channels pleading for the safe return of their infant
The couple was arrested on August 22 and charged with the baby’s murder
While in custody, authorities took Haro to scour an isolated field in Moreno Valley for the infant’s remains – which have never been recovered
But investigators soon uncovered inconsistencies in Rebecca’s story and when confronted, she stopped cooperating, leading detectives to suspect foul play.
About a week later, on August 22, baby Emmanuel’s parents were arrested at their home in Cabazon and charged with murder.
Search teams later scoured an isolated field in Moreno Valley – 27 miles from Cabazon – with Jake in custody and present, but no trace of the baby was ever found.
‘The filing in this case reflects our belief that baby Emmanuel was abused over time and that eventually because of that abuse, he succumbed to those injuries,’ Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said as he brought the charges against the couple.
He described Haro as an ‘experienced child abuser,’ noting that he ‘should have gone to prison’ after a 2023 conviction for abusing another child with his ex-wife in 2018.
In that case, Haro’s baby daughter was hospitalized with a skull fracture, multiple healing rib fractures, brain hemorrhages, and other injuries, according to police records.
The child was left permanently unable to walk or feed herself, KESQ reports.
Haro claimed he accidentally dropped the baby while bathing her, but doctors said the explanation was inconsistent with the severity of the injuries.
Rebecca Haro, 41, has pleaded not guilty to her son’s murder
Her mother argued in court on Monday that Haro ‘destroyed my whole family’
A judge sentenced Haro to just serve 180 days in a sheriff’s work release program – a decision Hestrin called ‘an outrageous error in judgment.
‘If that judge had done his job as he should have done, Emmanuel would be alive today,’ Hestrin said.
He noted that while on probation in that case, Haro was caught with a handgun and ammunition in violation of his release.
Court documents obtained by Fox 11 also revealed that Haro’s first wife filed a domestic violence restraining order against him with a request to protect their son.
When Emmanuel was reported missing in August, Riverside County authorities removed a two-year-old child from the Haros’ home.
‘The lies told in this case only deepened the tragedy of Emmanuel’s death,’ Hestrin said following the sentencing on Monday.
‘While today’s sentencing represents a measure of accountability for Jake Haro, our office will continue to seek justice as this case against the defendant moves forward.’
Rebecca now also faces charges of murder and filing a false police report, for which she has pleaded not guilty.
She is due back in court for a felony settlement conference on January 21.
In the meantime, she is being held on a $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail.
