Jake and Rebecca Haro of Cabazon each pleaded not guilty on Thursday, Sept. 4, to charges of murder and filing a false police report in connection with the disappearance of their 7-month-old son, Emmanuel.
Prosecutors say they believe the baby is dead. His body had not been found.
Both parents are jailed in protective custody, held in lieu of $1 million each.
The next hearing was scheduled for Sept. 16 at the Riverside County Hall of Justice in Riverside.
Jeff Moore, Rebecca Haro’s attorney, noted to Superior Court Judge Gary Polk that the crimes are alleged to have occurred in Cabazon, which is closer to the Banning Justice Center than to Riverside. Moore said he believes the Banning courthouse would be a more appropriate venue for the case.
Polk invited Moore to file a motion to that effect.
A move certainly would not be for the convenience of attorneys.
Moore’s office, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office are all about a block from the Riverside courthouse. Trying the case in Banning might decrease media attention that has made worldwide headlines because it would add 45 minutes to the trip for the Los Angeles and western Riverside County reporters and citizen journalists who have swarmed the Haros’ two hearings.
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As they did in their first court appearance, the defendants sat on opposite sides of the courtroom, Rebecca in the back row of the two-row jury box and Jake in a chair near the defendants’ entrance/exit.
Rebecca Haro did not speak during the proceedings. Jake Haro answered “Yes” to one of Polk’s questions. The attorneys entered the pleas on their clients’ behalf.
Rebecca Haro, 41, said she was changing the baby’s diaper in the parking lot of a Big 5 sporting goods store in Yucaipa on Aug. 14 when a man approached her, said, “Hola,” and slugged her. Haro said she was knocked unconscious and when she awoke, Emmanuel had vanished.
She had a black right eye when she later spoke with reporters, emotionally pleading for the baby’s return.
Haro later reiterated that account in a jailhouse interview with a Southern California News Group reporter. Jake Haro, 32, in a separate interview from jail, said his wife was innocent but would not say whether he was innocent. Haro also said he believes he and his wife were charged because of his 2023 guilty plea to a felony charge of willful child cruelty.
His sentence, 179 days in the sheriff’s work-release program, probation and a six-year state prison term that he did not have to serve unless he violated the plea agreement, drew the ire of Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin, who said Emmanuel would not have been killed had his father been sent to prison.
One of the conditions of Haro’s probation was that he attend a year-long child batterer’s treatment program.
Officials at the court-appointed PHS Counseling in Beaumont, in a progress report filed with the court, said Haro attended all 52 classes and rated him a 1 out of 10 — the lowest perceived risk of re-offending.
“Mr. Haro has made notable progress in this Batterers/Parenting class/program,” a counselor wrote on July 18, 2024. “He is attentive, polite, and appropriately interactive in class with other members and (the) facilitator.
“He appears to have understood the lesson material and principles, as evidenced by his sharing, which appears to have been open and honest,” the counselor said. “He appears to have gained self-insight and awareness into his parenting style. He appears to have benefited from this mandated class/program.”
Within 24 hours of Rebecca’s initial report, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus, detectives found inconsistencies in her statements, prompting a massive joint investigation involving his department, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and the San Bernardino County and the Riverside County district attorney’s offices.
Hestrin has said Emmanuel was a victim of ongoing abuse but did not elaborate.
Jake Haro rejected that contention in his jail interview and would not address whether Emmanuel may have died in an accident.
On Thursday, a large media contingent was again present at the Hall of Justice. At the couple’s previous court appearance, on Aug. 26, the media, which included social-media citizen reporters, jostled with one another as they surged into the sixth-floor courtroom seeking the limited seats.
Thursday, a sheriff’s deputy handed out cardboard squares numbered up to 18 to the media to prevent a repeat. A deputy also handed out similar squares, numbered 19 to 40, to members of the public.
Among those who won public seats were a half-dozen people who said they post coverage of the case on social media, including at least one with a TikTok channel.
Another person who watched the hearing was a 55-year-old Yucca Valley resident, Geena Ayala. She distributed flyers beforehand that urged people to sign an online petition to create “Emmanuel’s Law,” which would protect children from convicted abusers.
“I don’t think any child should be subjected to child abuse again and again and again,” said Ayala, who wore a shirt emblazoned with the baby’s photo and the words “Justice for Emmanuel.”