In Riverside, California, Jake Haro, the father of missing infant Emmanuel Haro, has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after admitting to the murder of his 7-month-old son.
In addition to the life sentence, Haro received an additional six-year term for other criminal activities, which will be served consecutively.
The judge declared Haro ineligible for probation, citing his existing probation status related to the severe abuse of another child, during the sentencing on Monday.
His punishment also includes over $20,000 in fines and court-related costs.
VIDEO: Father of Baby Emmanuel Receives Sentence for Son’s Murder
Before the sentencing, the defense contested the imposition of any financial penalties, arguing that Jake Haro’s financial situation qualifies him as indigent, thus necessitating a public defender.
In response, the prosecutor said the defendant “deserves no leniency.”
Last month, the 32-year-old father pleaded guilty to all charges, including second-degree murder, assault causing bodily harm to a child resulting in the death of said child and filing a false police report, according to court records.
The father, who previously pleaded not guilty with his wife Rebecca Haro in September, cried in court when he was giving his plea on Oct. 16.
Emmanuel’s mother, 41-year-old Rebecca Haro, pleaded not guilty to an amended complaint in October, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Monday. It remains unclear what is in the complaint, according to Los Angeles ABC station KABC.
The baby’s maternal grandmother, Mary Beushausen, addressed the court during Jake Haro’s sentencing on Monday.
“He destroyed my family,” she told the court. “Everybody in my family, all my children are destroyed by this.”
“He changed my daughter. We don’t know who she is,” she continued. “He kept my daughter away. I don’t know what he did or how he changed my daughter’s life, but she was never that same person after she went to live with him.”
She asked for a lengthy sentence, saying, “I don’t want to give him another chance.”
Officials have not announced whether they have located the baby’s remains.
The 7-month-old was reported missing on Aug. 14 at approximately 7:47 p.m. local time after his mother “reported being attacked outside a retail store on Yucaipa Boulevard,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Aug. 15.
When he was reported missing, Emmanuel’s mother told officials that “while she stood outside her vehicle, changing the child’s diaper, she was physically assaulted by an unknown male and rendered unconscious,” authorities said.
Authorities later said the mother was “confronted with inconsistencies in her initial statement,” leading officials to say they were “unable to rule out foul play in the disappearance of Emmanuel.”
Jake and Rebecca Haro were arrested and charged for the child’s murder on Aug. 22, officials said.
In August, officials announced they had a “pretty strong indication” on the location of the child’s remains and said they believed Emmanuel was “severely abused over a period of time.”
Jake Haro was even seen searching a field near the 60 freeway in Moreno Valley in late August with law enforcement, but no remains were apparently found.
“The filing in this case reflects our belief that baby Emmanuel was abused over time and that eventually because of that abuse, he succumbed to those injuries,” Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said during a press conference in August.
Hestrin said Jake Haro, who he described as an “experienced child abuser,” “should have gone to prison” due to previously abusing another child he had with his ex-wife in 2018, but a judge at the time granted him probation — a ruling Hestrin called an “outrageous error in judgment.” Authorities said the child in that case has been left bedridden.
“If that judge had done his job as he should have done, Emmanuel would be alive today,” Hestrin said in August.
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