Jake Haro, who admitted to killing his 7-month-old son Emmanuel, was sentenced to more than 30 years in state prison on Monday, Nov. 3 — bringing to a close one-half of a court case investigated by both sheriff’s departments in the Inland Empire that has captured the attention of the national media and social-media sleuths across the country.
Superior Court Judge Gary Polk sentenced Haro, 32, to seven years, two months for a probation violation and other charges, which he will begin serving first. When that time is completed, he will serve 25 years to life for assault on a child under age 8.
The location of the boy’s remains is unclear.
During the hearing, Haro declined to speak. But Emmanuel’s maternal grandmother, Mary Beushausen, did choose to talk during the sentencing hearing.
“I want you to look at me,” she said before the judge told her to not speak directly to Haro but to the court. “I told him I would be here for his sentencing before he was arrested.
“He destroyed our family.”
On Oct. 16, Haro, 32, pleaded guilty at the Riverside Hall of Justice to second-degree murder, assault on a child under age 8 causing death and filing a false police report.
Assistant Deputy District Attorney Brandon Smith had sought six years for Haro violating his probation in a previous child-abuse case to be followed by 25 years to life in prison for the assault charge. Deputy Public Defender Allison Lowe argued for 15 years to life, the maximum sentence for the second-degree murder charge.
Because both the assault and murder were the same act, Polk, by law, could sentence Haro on only one of the charges. The judge chose the harsher option.
Haro’s wife, Rebecca Haro, 41, has pleaded not guilty to murder, assault on a child under 8 years old and filing a false police report. She is due back in court on Jan. 21.
For the sentencing hearing on Monday, Nov. 3, some two dozen members of the public, along with numerous media representatives, packed the sixth-floor courtroom. About 10 people of a group that calls itself “Emmanuel’s Warriors” broke out new, blue T-shirts with the baby’s image on the front. On the back of the shirts were the words, “Where’s Emmanuel?”
District Attorney Mike Hestrin, in announcing the charges against the Haros on Aug. 27, said without elaboration that Emmanuel died from the effects of prolonged abuse.
Hestrin also said the judge who sentenced Jake Haro to six months and a six-year suspended sentence in 2023 after his guilty plea in a child-cruelty case made an “outrageous error” that left Haro free — thereby contributing to Emmanuel’s death. A group that advocates for attorneys and judges said the sentencing was actually proper.
On Aug. 14, Rebecca Haro reported that Emmanuel was abducted as she changed his diaper in the parking lot of a Big 5 Sporting Goods store in Yucaipa. An unknown man who said “Hola” to Haro, she told investigators, knocked her unconscious and grabbed Emmanuel.
But within 24 hours, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus, detectives found inconsistencies in Haro’s statements. Investigators would spend hundreds of hours gathering evidence, interviewing witnesses and following up on leads. The Haros were arrested at their Cabazon home on Aug. 22.
Two days later, during a jailhouse interview with the Southern California News Group, Rebecca Haro maintained that her son had been kidnapped.
“I will not give up on my baby,” Haro said.
Jake Haro, in a separate jailhouse interview, said his wife was innocent but declined to say what role, if any, he played in Emmanuel’s disappearance. When asked by the reporter what he would say to Emmanuel if he could talk to his boy, he replied:
“I love you, buddy.”
Haro also declined in that interview to say what prompted investigators — with him present — to search a hillside in the Moreno Valley Badlands off of Highway 60 just days after the arrests.
The case prompted local residents to build a makeshift memorial outside the Haro home and search for the baby on their own. At least three Facebook discussion groups devoted to the mystery were established, and citizen journalists gained huge followings on social media with often wildly speculative — but sometimes correct — video posts.
Rebecca Haro’s’ attorney, Jeff Moore, had filed a motion to discuss on Monday the sealing of a document containing details about the case. One of the defendants — authorities will not say who — apparently was placed in a jail cell with a paid informant. That hearing, however, was postponed to Dec. 11.
With Rebecca Haro’s case still ongoing, Smith declined to provide any new details to a Southern California News Group reporter on how Emmanuel was killed or where his remains could be found.
The grandmother talked to the court for about 10 minutes. Jake Haro isolated his children from other family members after she reported him to county Child Protective Services.
“I told them I didn’t like him,” she said. “I never met Emmanuel.”
She said her family members have been “branded” because people on social media speculated that others in the family must have known about the abuse of Emmanuel. She said people have “attacked” her verbally in supermarkets when they recognize her.
“They say Grandma knows something,” Beushausen said. “Grandma doesn’t know nothing. … This has been horrible for us.”
She asked the judge to give Jake Haro the maximum sentence.