The father of 7-month-old Emmanuel Haro said in a lengthy jailhouse interview denied prosecutors’ contention that the boy suffered long-term abuse before his presumed death and said his wife, who reported the infant missing, was innocent.
Jake Haro, 32, told a Southern California News Group reporter that he has been “completely cooperative” with investigators, although he declined to say whether he led them to the Moreno Valley Badlands over the weekend, where he was seen in an jail jumpsuit as crews searched the area, according to the Orange County Register.
Haro and 41-year-old Rebecca Haro were charged this week with killing little Emmanuel and filing a false report, as CrimeOnline reported. Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said at a news conference that investigators “believe that Emmanuel was severely abused over a period of time.”
“Both parents would have been aware of that abuse,” he said.
Haro told the Orange County Register that allegation was “not true at all” but declined to say what role he may have played in the little boy’s disappearance.
Prosecutors and investigators said at Wednesday’s news conference that there has been “some level of cooperation” from the parents but declined to provide details.
Rebecca Haro reported her son missing on August 14, claiming that someone she did not see knocked her unconscious while she was changing Emmanuel’s diaper and took the boy. In dramatic and emotional interviews after the reported disappearance, she begged for help finding her son.
But investigators soon found “inconsistencies” in her stories, and a week later, the parents were arrested. Formal murder charges were filed this week.
In his jailhouse interview, Jake Haro also denied prosecutors’ version of his previous conviction for child abuse. He claimed that he accidentally dropped his infant daughter on a sink divider while bathing her. She didn’t look injured, he said, although she is now permanently bedridden from her severe injuries, which included fresh and healing rib fractures, a fractured skull, and a leg fracture.
Haro and his then-wife pleaded guilty, and he was sentenced to 180 days in a work release program with a suspended prison sentence and was ordered to attend a child abuser treatment program.
“Somehow, they magically convinced me to take this damn plea deal,” he said. “I was sick of court. The judge knows I didn’t do it. They just railroaded me. I was the fall guy.”
At Wednesday’s press conference, Hestrin said that there was no plea deal. Instead, Haro threw himself on the “mercy of the court” and pled guilty in open court to avoid trial. The judge then gave him “a big break” with the sentence, over prosecutors’ strenuous objections.
“It was an outrageous error in judgement for this judge,” Hestrin said. “Mr. Haro should have been in prison at the time that this crime [baby Emmanuel] happened.”
Haro declined to provide any details about the current case, citing advice from his lawyer.
“I want to talk about it, but I can’t,” Haro said in the 45 minute interview with a reporter. “I was told, don’t do no press.”
Rebecca Haro, too, appears to be ignoring legal advice, speaking to a reporter from jail over the weekend and sticking solidly to her kidnapping story.
Rebecca, her husband said, “is innocent.”
“The media is killing her,” he said. “She is a beautiful woman. She loves her children.”
The Orange County Register reached out to the Riverside Sheriff’s Department for a comment about Haro’s interview, and they declined.
“This investigation will be ongoing for quite some time,” Lt. Deirdre Vickers said in an email. “We are not going to comment on statements made by the suspect. Nor provide any details about the investigation.”
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[Featured image: Emmanuel Haro/San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department]
