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Rebecca Haro has been sentenced to prison following the tragic death of her seven-month-old son, Emmanuel.
The 42-year-old mother admitted her guilt to charges including child endangerment, involuntary manslaughter, and acting as an accessory after the fact to murder during a court session on May 29, as reported by CBS News.
According to KESQ, she received a prison sentence of 12 years and eight months.
Rebecca and her husband, Jake Haro, hailing from Cabazon, California, faced charges regarding the death of their infant son Emmanuel after they reported him missing in August 2025. Initially, both parents pleaded not guilty. However, Jake later changed his plea to guilty and was subsequently sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Here’s what is known about the Haro family and the heartbreaking case of Baby Emmanuel.
The Disappearance of Baby Emmanuel
The Haro family was thrust into the spotlight on Aug. 14 when Rebecca reported Emmanuel missing.
According to Rebecca, she was changing Emmanuel’s diaper in the car while parked outside a Yucaipa, Calif., sporting goods store when she was knocked unconscious by an unknown male. When she woke up on the ground with a black eye, Emmanuel was nowhere to be found.
While authorities deployed K9 scent-tracking dogs to locate the missing infant and released his description to the public, Rebecca and Jake made tearful pleas.
“Whoever took my son, please return him,” Jake told reporters. “We just want him back. We won’t do anything to you. Just give us our son. Keep him safe. Don’t hurt him. Make sure you feed him, change him.”
Rebecca added, “If you know anything, please come forward.”
But investigators began to doubt Rebecca’s story.
Rebecca Haro, Jake Haro Charged with Murder as Dad’s Abusive Past Emerges
Police initially said the couple provided “some level of cooperation” in the case. However, they noted inconsistencies with Rebecca’s account and she stopped talking to investigators, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
Days later, the case took a dramatic turn.
On Aug. 22, Rebecca and Jake were arrested and charged with murder and filing a false police report. They were each held on $1 million bail.
Two days later, Rebecca proclaimed her innocence in a jailhouse interview.
“I will not give up. I will not give up on my baby,” Rebecca told the Southern California News Group. “I want to be out looking for my baby.”
Rebecca also praised Jake as a father to their 2-year-old child and her teen daughter from another relationship.
“He’s a good dad,” she told the outlet. “He would never hurt a baby.”
As authorities searched for Emmanuel’s remains, Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin outlined what prosecutors believed led to the infant’s death.
“The filing in this case reflects our belief that Baby Emmanuel was…a victim of child abuse over time,” Hestrin said in an Aug. 27 press conference, “and that eventually because of that abuse, he succumbed to those injuries.”
San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus called Jake “an experienced child abuser” in the press conference, citing his past criminal record.
In 2023, Jake was convicted of willful child cruelty against his infant daughter Carolina from a previous marriage, according to the district attorney’s office. The 2018 incident, Hestrin said in the press conference, left her “permanently bedridden” and with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy.
Jake pleaded guilty in that case and was sentenced to a work-release program and probation—a sentence Hestrin called “outrageous.”
“If that judge had done his job, as he should have done,” Hestrin noted in the press conference, “Emmanuel would be alive today, and that’s a shame and it’s an outrage.”
Jake Haro, Rebecca Haro Plead Not Guilty to Murdering Baby Emmanuel
The couple appeared in court on Sept. 4 and both pleaded not guilty. Outside the courthouse, supporters of Emmanuel gathered in his honor.
As local resident Carla Jaramillo said, per ABC 7, “I wish he could see what he has now … so much love from different moms,”
Meanwhile, Rebecca hired high-profile defense attorney Jeff Moore, notable for defending Louise Turpin. In 2019, Louise and her husband David were sentenced to 25 years to life in a California prison for abusing their children in a so-called “house of horrors.”
Jake Haro Pleads Guilty to Murder
On Oct. 16, Jake changed his plea from not guilty to guilty. On Nov. 3, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. He was also ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution and was credited with 551 days for time served.
Jake received an additional six years and eight months for illegally possessing a firearm, a charge related to the prior child abuse case, according to a press release from the Riverside County District Attorney.
Emmanuel’s maternal grandmother, Mary Beushausen, reportedly urged the court to consider a long sentence for Jake.
“Everybody in my family, all my children are destroyed by this,” Beushausen said, according to ABC 7. “He changed my daughter. We don’t know who she is. He kept my daughter away. I don’t know what he did or how he changed my daughter’s life, but she was never that same person after she went to live with him.”
Prosecutors noted in the press release that Emmanuel’s remains were still not recovered and they would pursue justice against Rebecca.
Rebecca Haro Pleads Guilty in the Death of Baby Emmanuel
Ahead of Rebecca’s May 29 hearing, court documents obtained by the Orange County Register outlined Emmanuel’s “alarming” symptoms.
Emmanuel had suffered from shaking of the extremities, breathing problems and possible seizures, according to a forensic pediatric specialist cited in a May 27 document, per the outlet.
“The evidence is expected to show that these symptoms did not appear suddenly on the day of Emmanuel’s death,” Assistant District Attorney Brandon Smith wrote in the filing, per the OC Register. “Instead, the symptoms developed over time and were observable to anyone regularly caring for the child.”
Smith also said evidence presented at Rebecca’s May 29 hearing will show that she “knew or suspected” that Jake was abusing Emmanuel.
Rather than act on her concerns, wrote Smith per the outlet, “Rebecca participated in the fabrication of a false kidnapping story designed to conceal the homicide.”
Rebecca’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Oxygen Network.