Baby Emmanuel’s father sentenced to more than 30 years after guilty plea in 7-month-old son’s murder
By Rob McMillan
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RIVERSIDE, California (KABC) — The Cabazon man who killed his 7-month-old son, Emmanuel Haro, was sentenced to over 30 years in prison on Monday.
Baby Emmanuel’s parents reported him missing back in August, but his body has not been found. He is presumed to be dead.
In 2023, Jake Haro pleaded guilty in a child abuse case involving another one of his children. The judge in that case sentenced him to probation and community service, saying he was giving him “a second chance.” Now, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the death of his son Emmanuel, the judge in the case threw the book at him.
“Mr. Haro, the man who was supposed to protect these defenseless children… the sentence here is the most that the court can do to ensure that as much justice is done as possible,” Judge Gary Polk said in court.
The superior court judge sentenced Jake Haro to more than 30 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to murdering Emmanuel and then falsely reporting he’d been kidnapped.
He was sentenced to 25 years to life for second-degree murder. But, the judge also sentenced him to two terms — 6 months plus 6 years and 8 months — for violation of probation in the previous child abuse case. Jake will serve the time for the previous case before he begins his 25 years to life sentence for the murder of baby Emmanuel.
“I stand here with you, asking you to give him the maximum,” the child’s grandmother, Mary Beushausen, said.
Beushausen gave an impact statement in court, saying Jake — her daughter Rebecca Haro’s husband — never let her meet 7-month-old Emmanuel.
“I wish he could look at me and tell me why,” she said.
It all started back on the night of Thursday, Aug. 14, when Haro’s wife, Rebecca, claimed that she’d been attacked in the parking lot of a Big 5 in Yucaipa. She said she was knocked unconscious, and when she woke up, she said her little boy had been kidnapped.
“Please, I’m begging you. Please, God, please,” Rebecca said in an interview with Eyewitness News at the time.
“He was a healthy baby, he was crawling, he was kicking, he was playing with his toys,” Jake said in the same interview.
Family members then showed up at the Big 5, saying they were trying to organize a search effort. But, it all turned out to be a ruse.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said Jake and Rebecca stopped cooperating with them. Days later, they were both arrested and charged with murder.
“If I had known what was going on, I would have taken my daughter out of there forcefully, or I would have called the police,” Beushausen said in court. “Everybody in my family, all of my children, are destroyed by this.”
The judge also ordered Jake to pay $10,000 in restitution.
Meanwhile, the child’s mother, Rebecca, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the case of her missing son. She’s set to be back in court in January.
No new information came to light in court on Monday regarding the whereabouts of the missing baby’s body.
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