Emmanuel Haro's Dad Insists He and Wife Are Innocent — and Explains Past Abuse Case That Left Daughter Bedridden By KC Baker

As authorities continue to search for the remains of baby Emmanuel Haro, his father vehemently denied that the boy was the victim of long-term abuse.

Allegations that Jake Haro, 32, and his wife, Rebecca Haro, 41, harmed their 7-month-old son were “not true at all,” Haro told The Orange County Register in a jailhouse interview on Wed. Aug. 27.

The day before, Jake and Rebecca were charged with murder and filing a false police report. They are each being held on $1 million bail.

Rebecca told police that her son was kidnapped on Aug. 14 after she was knocked unconscious in the parking lot of a sporting goods store in Yucaipa, a city located 10 miles east of San Bernardino.

During the 45-minute interview via video at the jail, Haro was asked about his trip to the Moreno Valley Badlands on Sunday, Aug. 24, where he was seen accompanying investigators as they searched for the baby’s remains.

“I want to talk about it, but I can’t,” Haro told The Register.  “I was told, don’t do no press.”

What he did open up about was his 2023 child cruelty conviction for abusing his infant daughter Carolina in 2018.

That conviction, he said, led authorities to assume he killed his son, he told The Register.

“I pled guilty because I didn’t have the money to go to trial,” Haro told The Register. “The judge said nobody would believe my side of the story.”

“Somehow, they magically convinced me to take this damn plea deal,” he continued. “I was sick of court. The judge knows I didn’t do it. They just railroaded me. I was the fall guy.”

In 2018, Haro was arrested and charged with willful child cruelty after his 10-week-old daughter was brought to the hospital with extensive injuries, including multiple new and healing bone fractures, retinal hemorrhages and brain injuries, according to the arrest warrant obtained by PEOPLE.

The girl, now 7, is Jake’s daughter with his ex-wife, Vanessa, not Rebecca.

As a result of the injuries she sustained, she is now “permanently bedridden” and suffers from “cerebral palsy that is a result of long-term child abuse,” Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said at a news conference on Aug. 27.

Jake claimed that he had been washing the infant in the sink and accidentally dropped her. The doctor who examined the infant said her injuries could not be explained by falling such a short distance into the sink, say authorities.

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Jake pleaded guilty to child cruelty in 2023. The judge suspended his six-year prison sentence and ordered him to serve six months in a work-release program followed by four years of probation. He was also ordered to attend a child-abuser treatment program.

Jake also spoke up in support of Rebecca, whom he wed three years ago.

“Rebecca is innocent,”  Haro said. “The media is killing her. She is a beautiful woman. She loves her children.”

Speaking about the criticism that has been leveled at the couple on social media, he told The Register, “God is with us. The allegations are horrendous, so of course people are going to be riled up.”

Asked what he would say to Emmanuel if he had the chance, he replied, “I love you, buddy.”

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.