RIVERSIDE, Calif. (Court TV) — Rebecca Haro pleaded guilty to several charges related to the death of her missing 7-month-old son, Emmanuel Haro, at a court hearing on Friday.
The defendant, 42, and her husband, Jake Haro, 33, were originally charged with murder and filing a false police report over the infant’s presumed death. Emmanuel was reported missing on August 14, 2025. While the little boy’s mother initially said he was kidnapped during a diaper change in a store parking lot, deputies quickly determined that story did not hold water.
Rebecca Haro was in court for a previously scheduled preliminary hearing to determine whether or not she should stand trial on murder charges for her son’s death. Those proceedings and questions were short-circuited by the plea agreement reached between the state and the defense. Her since-shelved trial would have started in August.
Rebecca Haro appears in court for her plea change and sentencing on May 29, 2026. (Court TV)
Appearing before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jerry Yang, Rebecca Haro pleaded guilty to one count each of felony child abuse or endangerment causing great bodily injury to a child under the age of five, involuntary manslaughter, and accessory after the fact.
In exchange for the state dropping the murder charge, both sides agreed to a sentence of 12 years and eight months in state prison, a prosecutor told the judge on Friday morning.
For several minutes after the announcement, Yang and Rebecca Haro went through a standard series of questions about the upshot of the plea agreement — including the rights being waived, whether the defendant understood what she was doing, and related inquiries. In response to each explanation called out by the judge, Emmanuel’s mother said: “Yes, Your Honor.”
Rather than setting a sentencing date sometime in the future, both sides agreed to waive the typical preparation time and had the court immediately move on to the punishment phase.
Yang, for his part, was amenable to the agreement — and did not deviate at all. Ultimately, Rebecca Haro was sentenced in line with the plea deal, with her sentences running consecutively, or one after another, and with a total of 323 days credited against her sentence for the time she spent in pretrial detention and her good behavior behind bars so far.
In October 2025, Jake Haro pleaded guilty to all the charges against him — including a probation violation in a prior child abuse case. He was sentenced in November 2025 and subjected to scorn from Emmanuel’s maternal grandmother by way of an impact statement.
The father’s fate was referenced during the mother’s hearing.
“This resolution reflects what I believe the evidence shows happened in those months, weeks and days leading up to Emmanuel’s murder,” a prosecutor said. “Jake Haro was sentenced in November to 32 years to life for his sins of commission. In other words, it was his hands that physically took Emmanuel’s life. Rebecca Haro’s plea and sentence today reflects her sins of omission.”
Emmanuel Haro. (San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office)
During the prosecutor’s speech about culpability, Rebecca Haro was audibly sobbing. Throughout the proceedings, the defendant looked to be on the verge of tears.
The prosecutor suggested the chiding soliloquy was being offered in lieu of a victim impact statement “because the two people in the world who should have been Emmanuel’s biggest advocates and protectors are solely responsible for his murder.”
“While we don’t have evidence that she personally struck or shook her son, the evidence is clear that she repeatedly and consistently chose not to intervene on behalf of her son in spite of his evident and accelerating physical deterioration,” the prosecutor went on. “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 and she failed in that duty. And that’s why she is here.”
