Crying Dad Confessed to Killing Missing Baby: Report

We have breaking information in the search for Emmanuel Haro and the case against his parents.

It's appropriate to have a press conference because it was the defendants in this case that had a press conference first. And they did so in order to tell the public, the media, and ultimately law enforcement that their child had been kidnapped, when in fact that's not what occurred.

The authorities held a news conference Wednesday for the first time since the Haros went on the air August 14th with what is now said to be a lie.

Got him out of the car seat and I laid him down and I could get his diapers ready and somebody said, Ola and that's all I remember.

There's also a report that says the father, Jake Harrow, broke from the storyline that he and his wife have been giving the public, that he confessed in jail. And on top of that, the DA says Jake Harrow should have been in prison. The major break he says a judge gave him

in another child abuse case that perhaps could have prevented Emmanuel's death. We're on the case presented by Law and Crime. I'm Chris Stewart.

We have a couple of big updates to give you today

in the case involving Emmanuel Haro. The Riverside County District Attorney said that he has an idea of where Emanuel Harrow's body is And he also has an idea of what happened to Emanuel Harrow at the hands allegedly of his parents DA Michael Hestron held a news conference Wednesday alongside law enforcement who have been working this case and not only did we learn more about

The search for Emanuel and the case against his parents, we also learned more about a previous child abuse case involving Jake Harrow that goes back to 2018 and the DA did not hold back in saying the judge gave Harrow a break and it was a bad decision.

Now, before I get to that part of the story, let's get you the latest on where things stand right now in the search for Emmanuel Harrow and the case against his parents. This is video per News Nation of Jake and Rebecca Haro in court on Tuesday. They're now officially charged with the murder of their seven month old son. Their court hearing on Tuesday was a brief one. They didn't speak. They didn't show much emotion or enter pleas. They are expected to be arraigned on charges next week, September 4th.

Now we did learn in the criminal complaint yesterday that we received, that law enforcement believed that Emmanuel Haro died as early as on or around August 5th. That's nine days before his parents went on KABC claiming that Rebecca Haro, the mom, had been attacked and young Emmanuel was kidnapped from a parking lot in Yucaypa, California.

Got him out of the car seat and I laid him down and so I could get his diapers ready. And somebody said, Ola, and that's all I remember.

Whoever took our son, please give him back.

Jake and Rebecca Haro are also facing a felony charge of filing a false report. Law enforcement today said it was within 24 hours that they knew, in their opinion, that the Haros story just wasn't true. A major update from today's news conference was when the Riverside County District Attorney was asked if he had any idea on where baby Emanuel's remains are located. This is per News Nation.

Yes, we have a pretty strong indication of where the remains of baby Emanuel are. So that investigation is ongoing at this time.

The DA wouldn't go deeper into where that is and he wouldn't flat out say that they know where Emanuel's remains are located. Now you might remember this image per KABC of Jake Harrow with deputies off a highway about 22 miles from his home on Sunday. The remains of Emmanuel weren't located at that time.

Now when asked about what happened during that search and why Jake Harrow was out there, the San Bernardino County Sheriff said they were getting some level of cooperation from the suspect, but he would not go into more detail. But then a bombshell report today per the Uvalde Foundation for Kids. It's a nonprofit that was originally helping

in the search for Emmanuel Haro, and they told us that they've learned that Jake Haro confessed while in jail. They say Haro confessed to a Perkins informant That is an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a fellow inmate now We're working to get comment from law enforcement about that and confirm if they'll tell us if Jake has actually confessed

It does appear though at least at the time of this recording his wife who is being kept at a separate facility She is sticking to her story at least she was on Sunday when Jake was out with deputies because Rebecca Haro gave an interview to a reporter with the Southern California News Group from jail and we spoke with reporter Brian Rokos on Tuesday and here's what he told us. She said she

Stuck to her guns. I gave her every opportunity to say, well, Jake was behind it or I'm a victim of domestic violence. Gave her ample opportunity to change her story.

It's unclear what Haro specifically said in jail, but we did just learn from the district attorney how they believe baby Emanuel died more now per the cameras of NewsNation

The filing in this case reflects our belief that baby Emanuel was abused victim of child abuse over time and that Eventually because of that abuse he succumbed to those injuries.

Another part of this news conference was information on a previous child abuse case involving Jake Harrow when he was married to someone else. It happened in 2018. Harrow's then 10-week-old daughter, just an infant, had to go to the hospital. She had broken bones and Harrow was charged with cruelty to children. In 2023 he was sentenced in the case,

and the DA says the girl who's now seven years old has lifelong injuries because of Jake Harrow. She is bedridden, she can't talk, she has other challenges in her life, all because of the man who allegedly then murdered his seven-month-old son.

Now, for as horrific as that 2018 crime was, Harrow didn't go to prison. He was given a suspended sentence. It wasn't a plea deal though. This was a plea through the court, the DA says. The decision to not give Haro a steep prison sentence

was made by a judge. It was a judge in Riverside County, but they were visiting from San Bernardino County, according to the district attorney. Here is what the Riverside DA said about that. He has been on the job since 2014,

so this was a case that his office prosecuted.

And the judge decided, as is the judge's right to do in that case, he decided that Mr. Harlow deserved an extra break and gave him probation

4th. Joining us now is former federal prosecutor and the founder of West Coast Trial Lawyers, Nima Rahmani. Thank you as always for being with us here on Law on Crime. Very sad case that we've been following out of Southern California. The biggest thing is they've charged this couple

with murder, but you don't have a body. It doesn't seem like they have a pretty good idea of what what they think happened to Emmanuel Haro, the the prosecutors doing this case, but how does that complicate things if you don't have the remains?

Chris, we cover a lot of sad cases here on Law and Crime, but this one is particularly sad seven month old infant and you know, no body cases can be difficult to prosecute, but you can get murder convictions without them, especially in a case like this when an infant was in his parents custody. So there's really no other logical explanation. Obviously we know that the mom, Rebecca, told a story that was completely untrue about an abduction and a kidnapping. Obviously, for the prosecution, you really want to show the manner and means of death.

Obviously, the prior history, which I know we're going to talk about, is going to be really critical. The state's going to want to bring that in in 1101. That's the California Penal Code. But in other states, it's called 404B evidence, you know, other prior bad acts. So I think the prosecution is still going to be able to get there. And look, it's an early investigation. I know you have a lot of law enforcement folks who are looking for Emmanuel, you have cadaver

dogs. So probably by the time that trial rolls around, I wouldn't be surprised if we did find his body.

You have, of course, the viral moment that really started all of this was Rebecca Haro and Jake was in this story. We saw it on like KTLA and KBC. She's got this black guy that didn't really add up with the timeline.

But I mean, according to the prosecutors, this was just a straight up lie and they've learned a lot more since then. How does that lie factor into how this case could play out now that both of them are charged

with murder?

Chris, it's huge. And, you know, I'm sitting here in Los Angeles right now, and this has been a big deal the past week or so. And it's just going to get even bigger when you have the parents who go on TV here locally, and they're pleading for the safe return of their child and the evidence doesn't support any of it. We're talking about video

evidence, cell phone evidence, other digital footprints. That's gonna be something that jurors will absolutely hate. You're a parent, you're supposed to be protecting your child and when the child is missing and you're lying about how that poor child went missing, that's something that's going to really put the defense behind the eight ball here.

And I wonder for the defense, because this story is so high profile, you're going to be able, I would assume as prosecutors, to play the video of them straight up lying. If all of this is true that prosecutors have alleged, how do you get a jury if you're a defense attorney that would actually be in your favor in this case?

It's going to be very difficult. I think the most heinous crime is a parent murdering their own child. I can't think of anything worse than that. You're right. I mean, the jurors are going to absolutely hate this too. Now, I don't do any criminal defense work, but if I were defending this case,

the only possible way to do so would be to point the finger at the co-defendant. That's really the only thing you can do in a case like this. Obviously, they're gonna want the trial severed, so they're tried separately. The prosecution will try to keep them together.

But if you are defending Rebecca, for instance, you're going to say that she too was abused and, you know, Jake was violent and, you know, that's why, you know, she was put in this situation to lie. She too was a victim. I'm not saying I believe any of that, but that's really the only possible defense in this case.

To say that neither of them did it, that defies all logic and credibility, and there's no way a jury's going to believe that.

Today also the district attorney talked about an old case involving Jake Harrow. It happened in 2018. Horrific details on this one. Ten-week-old daughter of his with a sex wife. This girl, I mean, just 10 weeks old, goes to the hospital, has broken bones. According to the DA today, she is bedridden to this day

because of Jay Caro. And he was able to get a deal that kept him out of prison. The DA says that he wanted prison in this case, but there was a judge visiting from San Bernardino County, he said, he didn't say the name of the judge specifically, who gave Jay Caro a break because in this plea, it comes down to the judge's decision

and he decides no jail time for Jay Caro. I think he got work released or something like that. What is the process typically where a case, if you're a prosecutor and you build this case against someone and then suddenly it's just in the hands of a judge to decide whether or not this person should be in prison or not.

Chris, it can happen and here's how it happens. So normally when there's a plea, there's a plea agreement where either the parties will agree to a sentence or sometimes the parties will agree that the defendant's going to plead guilty and they're going to argue over the sentence. But when there is no agreement, what the defendant can do is plead open. That means plead guilty to the complaint.

They have to plead to all the charges in the complaint, and the judge will sentence the defendant on his or her own without any deal with the prosecution. Again, less common. Now if you're talking about crimes that don't have a mandatory minimum sentence in prison, then the judge could theoretically

sentence the defendant to probation or time served. And apparently, from what's being reported, that's what happened here. You have a felony, a child abuse case, where a judge, at least reportedly, sentenced Jake Haro to no prison time

over the prosecution's objection. And maybe just, maybe if he'd served time, Emmanuel would be alive today.

And that's what the district attorney said today. He was like, this was preventable, which you feel like for that judge, who I'm sure whoever they are, you try to make the right decision in that moment, but then years later, you try to make the right decision in that moment, but then years later you see this story is now headline news and just has such horrific details.

Have you seen, and I know prison for some judges, it may be something, it's debatable of whether or not incarceration is the way to go with people, but for a case where you have a 10 week old girl, lifelong issues now that she's going to have, she's now seven years old, she can't walk, she's bedridden. I guess how many judges out there

would not give prison to someone who's responsible for that? It's really shocking, but there are judges that are soft. There are judges that whether it's their defense background or some sort of civil background, they view these cases differently. I certainly, being a former prosecutor, again, not someone that does do any criminal defense work, I think it's really unconscionable and unfathomable

that you would sentence a parent in a child abuse, a felony case where there's a brain injury, fractures to no time. Again, unless there's some issue with the case that I don't know about, some issue of medical causation or it's unclear as to what happened.

But if you believe that the parent is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and you're accepting that guilt deeply, they're absolutely deserving of prison time. And now we have a situation where apparently J. Carl has allegedly continued to abuse other children.

There was another child, I think, that was taken from the home some years later. And of course, now Emmanuel's missing, presumed dead. And oftentimes when you're talking about abusers, it can be child abusers, sex abuse, any type of abuse. Oftentimes they don't abuse just one victim,

and that's the problem. So when you have someone who's abusing his own child, that's not gonna stop unless our criminal justice system does something about it. And it really failed the children in this case.

Yeah, that's really what the message was from the district attorney today. I did see in the criminal complaint that there was a California law where you can use evidence, present evidence related to previous cases

of domestic violence, where obviously Jay Caro has this on his record, the child cruelty charge stemming from that incident in 2018. What is the process of getting that evidence included? Because there are some cases where a defense attorney I could see say, hey, look, this was an isolated incident. He was sentenced for this.

This was in his past. This had nothing to do with this. I'm not saying I would believe that. But what's the process in California of those previous incidents being allowed to be included in a trial against somebody?

Chris, again, it goes back to the judge. The judge is the gatekeeper of the evidence. So obviously you want to show a pattern of physical abuse and violence, and to the extent that that's someone's MO, how they operate with respect to their boyfriend, girlfriend, their spouse, their partner, or their child, that evidence typically comes in. I think it should come in. Again, some judges don't allow it in, but the law does provide for it.

If you have a pattern of violence in your home, that those prior incidents, especially a case like this where he's guilty, he's a convicted felon, right? He's had a child removed from him, that his daughter was suffering lifelong injuries.

I mean, what better evidence is there of the type of person Jay Carr was than that living child that hopefully can come into court somehow and tell her story.

There is this report that came down just in a couple of minutes of us recording this interview just a little bit before. It's from News Nation, but then also the Uvalde Foundation for Kids reached out to us and told us that Jay Carr, according to this report, has given some level of confession while he was in jail to, they call it a Perkins informant, which is a member of law enforcement posing as someone who is an inmate also in the jail.

And Jake Harrow apparently said something along the lines that he was responsible for Emmanuel Harrow's death. How effective are those types of techniques in getting not just the confession, but actually when you present them to a jury and whether a jury believes that the person was telling the truth when they were in jail and said this to an informant?

It could be highly effective. There's really nothing better than the defendant's own words confessing to a crime. And you know, a Perkins informant, it's really named after a famous Supreme Court case where law enforcement will plant someone in the jail and hopefully the defendant starts talking.

And in this particular case, we've all seen the pictures, right? The cadaver dogs with Jay Carrow there in a red jumpsuit. And sometimes, you know, law enforcement will do that to see if that will prompt the defendant to start talking. Now, you know, you do have obviously Fifth Amendment and Sixth Amendment rights that come in.

If it's after someone has been charged and they're assigned a lawyer, you're not really supposed to elicit incriminating statements from them because they're represented. Obviously, the Fifth Amendment applies to a custodial interrogation. Oftentimes

those prison settings, believe it or not, even though they're in prison, it's not a custodial interrogation because law enforcement isn't interrogating them. So the Fifth Amendment often doesn't apply in those circumstances but the Sixth Amendment does. So a judge is gonna have have to rule on that confession as well, because believe me, unless there's some sort of plea, Jay Caro's lawyer is going to try to get that kept out.

And Jay Caro, we saw him on Sunday. You know, he's out with those cadaver dogs in that area. They didn't find Emanuel's remains there. But it seemed that there was some level of cooperation. And when the sheriff was asked about that today, he did say that there was some level of cooperation going on with Jake Harrow.

At the same time, you have Rebecca Harrow, who on Sunday gave an interview and she stuck to her story that Emmanuel was kidnapped, that she was assaulted in this parking lot. They aren't staying in the same facility and they don't have much communication with each other. How does, especially in her situation, if she's sticking with the story that they were giving originally and he seems to be cooperating, what does that mean for her case?

It doesn't bode well because she's someone that is doubling down on her lot. There's no evidence of this kidnapping, right? I mean, law enforcement pretty quickly debunked it. Again, in this day and age with technology, video surveillance, that's something that police officers, detectives can vet pretty quickly. Now, sometimes criminals, they go down with the ship. They maintain that lie all throughout trial. And we've seen juries here on law and crime return guilty verdicts pretty quickly. Jurors aren't stupid.

They know when they're being lied to and when there's no evidence of this kidnapping. And there's overwhelming evidence that Emmanuel died days before he was even reported missing. Well, you know, she better change her story. And the problem is once you do that video, those statements to law enforcement, it's not coming in, right?

Those lies and jurors are not gonna like that. And it's gonna be a very tough sledding for the defense when you have a client like Rebecca O'Hara who persists in her lies. That's why most of the time defendants are better off saying nothing than saying lies like this.

Right. And it just goes back to how this story even began in the first place with the lies that she allegedly told TV cameras and it's just gone from there. If you're a defense attorney, if you're defending either of them, Jake or Rebecca Haro, I mean, knowing that and again, he may be cooperating with them in some ways. She apparently is not at this point. But like, are you going for a not guilty verdict? If you're your defense attorney, like reasonably in your mind, like you're not going to win this thing,

I think a lot of people would say, like, what are you really going for? Like, what's what's a good outcome for a defense attorney when you take on this case? Yeah, it's a great question, Chris.

So this is what I would do if I were representing Jake and if I were representing Rebecca. For Jake, it's really got to be about mitigation at this point. And there's really kind of two schools of thought here. There are some people who think that murderers should not be given any consideration whatsoever, whether they plea, whether they cooperate, whether they identify the body. There are other prosecutors and folks who are watching

who believe, listen, if Jake Carroll cooperates, he identifies where Emmanuel Harrow was buried or dumped. Maybe he should get something, maybe the possibility of parole. Obviously, if you're the defense here, if you get a 25 to life deal, that's really a home run for someone like Jay Carl given its history and given that this is a murder case, right?

It's really not gonna get better than that. But even if you keep that open, that possibility of parole, I think that's a win. If your client doesn't die in prison, and I'm not saying that I would defend anyone like J. Carl, but whoever is defending him, if you secure that, I think that's a win. I think for Rebecca, obviously she's a woman. She may be able to pull off some sort of finger pointing, some sort of defense that she too was a victim. We've kind of seen her mug shot. I don't know if she was abused

or not. We don't know, but I don't think you're ever, ever gonna get a walk or a not guilty in a case like this. If you do, that's the best defense lawyering that I certainly can ever remember. You'd wanna put some sort of mitigation package together, say it was Jake that did this, Jake beat her,

he was violent as well. She's certainly going to get some time, but maybe it'll be on felony child abuse and neglect and not actual murder. I think that's what you have to shoot for if you're defending

Rebecca.

Yeah. And at this point they have public defenders and we'll see how, how this, this trial plays out, but certainly the search for the remains of Emanuel at the time of this recording continue on. Nima Rahmani, always great to have you on Law & Crime. Thanks for being with us.

Of course, Chris. Thanks for having me as always.

That will do it for On the Case presented by Law & Crime. Subscribe to us on YouTube and Spotify. I'm Chris Stewart. I'm Chris Stewart. We'll see you next time.