A Cabazon husband and wife were each charged with murder on Tuesday, Aug. 26, accused of killing their 7-month-old son Emmanuel, whose body has not been found during an ongoing search that has made headlines nationwide for almost two weeks.
Jake Haro, 32, and Rebecca Haro, 41, were also each charged with filing a false police report, a misdemeanor.
Hours later, the Haros made their first court appearance in the case at the Riverside County Hall of Justice. They were placed almost as far apart as possible — Rebecca Haro sitting in the jury box in a blue jail jumpsuit, and Jake Haro sitting in a red jail jumpsuit, indicating he’s in a protected population, near the incarcerated defendants’ entrance.
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Jake and Rebecca Haro appear in court for their arraignment on Tuesday, Aug. 26 at the Riverside Hall of Justice. The couple were arrested Friday on suspicion of killing their son, Emmanuel Haro, who is 7 months old. The arraignment was continued to Sept. 4, 2025. Photo taken at the Riverside Hall of Justice in Riverside Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times / Pool)
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Jake and Rebecca Haro appear in court for their arraignment on Tuesday, Aug. 26 at the Riverside Hall of Justice. The couple were arrested Friday on suspicion of killing their son, Emmanuel Haro, who is 7 months old. The arraignment was continued to Sept. 4, 2025. Photo taken at the Riverside Hall of Justice in Riverside Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times / Pool)
They did not enter a plea, with their next court appearance scheduled for Sept. 4.
It is unclear what evidence investigators have. District Attorney Mike Hestrin scheduled a news conference for Wednesday, Aug. 27, to discuss the case.
Last year, Hestrin personally prosecuted a body-less case when Owen Skyler Shover was convicted of murdering Moreno Valley teenager Aranda Briones. Hestrin hung the largely circumstantial prosecution on incriminating text messages and surveillance images.
The media, at least three dozen strong, and Haro friends and family members filled the sixth-floor courtroom for the three-minute hearing. Outside, more media, including those solely with social-media platforms with thousands of followers, gathered.
Haro friends and family members declined to comment to reporters.
Rebecca Haro told San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigators that she was changing the baby’s diaper by her vehicle on Aug. 14 outside a Big 5 store in Yucaipa when she was assaulted and knocked unconscious by an unknown man. When she awoke, the child was gone, she said.
Investigators interviewed multiple people, including the Haros, but when confronted with inconsistencies in her initial account, the mother declined to continue with interviews, sheriff’s officials said. Sheriff’s investigators later said her account was a lie — and the Haros were arrested on Aug. 22.
During a Sunday, Aug. 24, jailhouse interview with a Southern California News Group reporter, Rebecca Haro stood by her assertion that Emmanuel was kidnapped.
Later that day, Jake Haro, wearing a red jail jumpsuit, accompanied investigators as they looked for Emmanuel’s body in a brushy area off of the 60 Freeway near Gilman Springs Road in the Riverside County Badlands. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has not said whether Haro led investigators to that location or whether the investigators targeted that spot on their own.
The search for Emmanuel comes almost four years after Jake Haro and a different spouse, Vanessa Haro, were charged with willful child cruelty in Riverside County after an infant was found to have fresh and healing injuries that left the baby in critical condition.
According to an affidavit written by a Hemet police officer to obtain an arrest warrant, officers investigated a report that a 10-week-old girl had been admitted to Hemet Valley Hospital on Oct. 13, 2018, for treatment of broken bones.
Vanessa Haro, also known as Vanessa Avina, according to the document, told officers that she had left home for an hour before the baby was injured. During that time, Jake Haro told investigators, he bathed the baby and accidentally dropped it chest-first on the divider of the twin-basin sink.
That night, Vanessa woke up Jake because she was concerned about the baby. He felt something “crackle,” the affidavit says. Jake told the investigator that he did not feel a crackle after bathing the infant. He blamed his wife for the injuries.
Both pleaded guilty in 2023. Jake Haro’s plea was to the judge and not done in consultation with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. He received 180 days in the sheriff’s work-release program and was handed a suspended, four-year prison sentence and ordered to attend a child-abuser treatment program.
Under Vanessa Haro’s plea deal, also made directly with the judge, she got 120 days in the work-release program and was also told to attend the treatment program.
In a totally separate case, Jake Haro is due in court on Sept. 2 to answer to a charge of being a felon or addict in possession of a firearm.
In the case concerning their son, the Haros are each being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
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