(This story was updated with new information.)
A woman accused of helping her husband cover up the murder of their 7-month-old son, Emmanuel Haro, pleaded guilty and was sentenced Friday, May 29, to 12 years and eight months in prison.
Rebecca Renee Haro entered the plea under an agreement with Riverside County prosecutors.
Prosecutors said her husband, Jake Haro, killed the infant after repeated physical abuse. While Rebecca Haro did not personally hit Emmanuel, she failed to report what her husband did, never got medical help for her child, then — after Emmanuel’s death — falsely reported to police that he’d been kidnapped in a store parking lot, the district attorney’s office said Friday.
Jake Haro was sentenced in November to 32 years to life in prison for murder, assault on a child resulting in death, filing a false police report and an unrelated previous crime. On Friday, Rebecca Haro pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, felony child abuse and accessory after the fact.
“Rebecca Haro is going to prison because she failed as a mother,” Assistant District Attorney Brandon Smith told reporters after the hearing. “She may not have put her hands on Emmanuel, but she knew that Jake was, and she had a responsibility to intervene, and she chose repeatedly not to. … She failed, and she deserves to be where she is today.”
The Haros became the focus of national media attention when they first said Emmanuel had been kidnapped on Aug. 14, 2025. Rebecca Haro, 41, told sheriff’s deputies she was knocked unconscious while changing Emmanuel’s diaper outside a Big 5 store in Yucaipa. When she came to, she said, the boy was gone.
San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies said they identified discrepancies in her account and she and Jake Haro were arrested Aug. 22. While the initial false report of a kidnapping was filed in San Bernardino County, the two were prosecuted in Riverside County because that’s where the abuse that ultimately killed Emmanuel happened.
Rebecca Haro entered her plea Friday just as a preliminary hearing was about to begin to determine if there was enough evidence for her to stand trial.
While authorities have said they believe they know the area where Emmanuel’s body is, he has never been found, prosecutors said Friday, more than nine months after he was reported missing.
“I think the best we can hope for is to bring Emmanuel home, give him some peace,” Smith said Friday.
It was not the first time Jake Haro had seriously injured a child. He pleaded guilty to willful child cruelty in 2023 in a separate case, in which the child was seriously injured but survived. Judge Dwight Moore gave him a suspended sentence and probation.
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said prosecutors had wanted prison time in the 2023 case given the girl’s injuries, which included broken ribs and a fractured skull, leaving the child permanently bedridden.
“If that judge would have done his job, Emmanuel would have been alive today,” Hestrin said last year.
Contributing: City News Service.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Mother pleads guilty in death of 7-month-old Emmanuel Haro
Reporting by Staff and wire reports, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
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