A 7-month-old toddler reported missing earlier this month in Yucaipa and whom prosecutors believe was killed by his father in Cabazon was “severely abused” to the point of death, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said Wednesday.
“We believe he was abused over time,” Hestrin said during a news briefing Wednesday in downtown Riverside. “We believe Emmanuel was severely abused … and because of the abuse, he succumbed to those injuries. That’s what we believe.”
Jake Mitchell Haro, 32, and Rebecca Renee Haro, 41, of Cabazon are each charged with murder and filing a false police report. They made their initial joint court appearance Tuesday before Superior Court Judge Gary Polk, who appointed both the same public defender and set their arraignment for Sept. 4 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
The victim’s body has yet to be located, but Hestrin noted that investigators “have a pretty strong indication of where the remains of the baby are.” The search is ongoing.
The couple were arrested last week following a San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department investigation.
Each defendant is being held without bail — Jake Haro at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, his wife at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.
“There were inconsistencies in Rebecca’s statements,” San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus told reporters, explaining why no statewide Amber Alert was issued when Emmanuel was first reported missing.
Dicus said detectives invested “hundreds of hours” investigating the case, running down leads.
“There was forensic data from the crime scene,” he said. “That’s how we learned the jurisdiction where this crime occurred (Riverside County). Forensically, there were a number of things we were able to prove up.”
He did not disclose specifics, and he said that while no one can pinpoint where the tot’s remains are now, “there’s some level of cooperation from the defendants.”
Dicus emphasized that Jake Haro is an “experienced child abuser,” capable of realizing the gravity of the circumstances and how the justice system works, requiring gumshoe work by detectives to uncover clues.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said local Central Homicide Unit investigators are working in concert with their counterparts to the north at every stage.
“Neither of us cares about jurisdiction,” he said. “This is a massive investigation. Nothing is worse than harming a baby.”
Hestrin said the tot’s death was preventable, blaming a failure in the criminal justice system that enabled Jake Haro to remain free on probation after pleading guilty in a prior child abuse case involving his ex-wife and another infant, Carolina.
Haro admitted a child cruelty charge in 2023, but made his plea directly to the court, avoiding negotiations with prosecutors. Hestrin said the prosecution wanted prison time for the defendant’s extensive abuse of the girl, which resulted in multiple broken ribs, a fractured skull and a brain hemorrhage. The 2018 abuse left the her permanently bed-ridden, according to Hestrin.
“The judge decided in that case, he decided that Mr. Haro deserved an extra break and gave him (four years’) probation and basically 180 days of work release, which ends up being like community service,” the county’s top prosecutor said.
The judge was on assignment from San Bernardino County. He was not named in the court register available online.
“It was an outrageous error in judgment by this judge,” Hestrin said. “Mr. Haro should have been in prison at the time that this crime happened. If that judge had done his job, Emmanuel would be alive today. That’s a shame, and it’s an outrage.”
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department personnel were examining potential body dump sites along the Moreno Valley (60) Freeway in the Badlands at the end of last week, without success.
Emmanuel was reported missing in the 34000 block of Yucaipa Boulevard in Yucaipa on the evening of Aug. 14.
Rebecca Haro informed deputies she had been assaulted while standing near her vehicle, changing Emmanuel’s diaper outside a Big 5 store. The defendant suggested she was knocked out, and that the assailant fled with the tot.
On Aug. 18, San Bernardino County sheriff’s detectives served search warrants at the Haro home with the help of K9 units, and “a large amount of surveillance video” was obtained from areas of interest for review, according to the agency.
Jake Haro sought an attorney’s counsel after his wife ended her cooperation with the investigation, according to reports.
Jake Haro was arrested last year in Banning and charged with illegal possession of a loaded firearm, as well as probation violations. That case has not been resolved.
Court documents also revealed that Isabel Rebecca Gonzalez, Haro’s former spouse, filed a domestic violence retraining order against him on Aug. 19, and the request sought to protect the couple’s son, Eli.
Rebecca Haro has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.