The mother of 7-month-old Emmanuel Haro — who claimed her son had been kidnapped, kicking off a frantic search in the Inland Empire — now faces a lengthy prison sentence after admitting to charges related to her role in the infant’s disappearance and death.
Rebecca Renee Haro, 42, had initially denied the charges against her, but changed course Friday, pleading guilty to felony child abuse causing great bodily injury to a child under the age of 5 with an enhancement allegation of involuntary manslaughter. She was also found guilty of being an accessory after the fact, according to the Riverside County district attorney’s office.
As part of the plea agreement, Haro was sentenced to 12 years and eight months in state prison, according to prosecutors.
“Rebecca Haro’s plea and sentence today reflect her sins of parental omission,” Asst. Dist. Atty. Brandon Smith said in a statement. “Her choice not to intervene was a choice to allow, if not facilitate, Emmanuel’s death. This defendant had a legal and moral responsibility as Emmanuel’s mother. She catastrophically failed in that duty.”
Haro’s plea comes about six months after her husband, Jake Haro, 33, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder of his infant son, as well as a 180-day sentence for filing a false police report.
Emmanuel’s disappearance drew national attention after Haro and her husband told authorities their son had been kidnapped after someone attacked her in a Yucaipa parking lot on Aug. 14.
Independent journalists, online sleuths and criminal case followers traveled from across the country to track developments on the missing child’s case.
But a week after reporting the kidnapping, investigators arrested the couple at their Cabazon home after determining that Emmanuel was most likely dead and the couple had faked their story.
Authorities also removed another 2-year-old child from the couple’s custody and scoured a field in Moreno Valley, accompanied by Jake Haro in a jail jumpsuit.
Emmanuel’s body has still not been found.
Investigators paid special attention to the boy’s father, who had previously been convicted of felony willful child endangerment after his baby daughter was taken to a hospital in 2018 with a skull fracture, several healing fractures to her ribs, a brain hemorrhage, swelling in the neck and a healing tibia fracture in her leg, according to a police affidavit for an arrest warrant.
Prosecutors believe that multiple acts of abuse and physical assault led to Emmanuel’s death.
“While the evidence established that Jake Haro was the person who inflicted the fatal injuries,” prosecutors wrote in a statement, “the prosecution alleged that Rebecca Haro became aware of Emmanuel’s deteriorating condition and signs of ongoing abuse, failed to protect him or obtain necessary medical care, and later participated in efforts to conceal the crime.”
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