The district attorney proposes a 6-year term for violating probation followed by 25 years to life for assault; public defender seeks term of 15 to life.
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Prosecution, defense disagree on sentence for Jake Haro in death of 7-month-old Emmanuel
The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office will seek a minimum 31-year sentence for
Cabazon resident Jake Haro when he is sentenced Monday, Nov. 3, for murdering his 7-month-old son Emmanuel, while the Public Defender’s Office will argue for a term of 15 years to life, court documents filed Friday show.
“There is nothing in the law or before this court that should lead a sentencing judge to believe that this man deserves anything but the maximum sentence allowed by law,” Assistant District Attorney Brandon Smith wrote.
Second-degree murder carries a sentence of 15 years to life. The term for a child assault conviction is 25 years to life. The DA’s Office said that the murder and assault were part of the same act. Under California law, a defendant can be sentenced on only one charge if one act resulted in convictions on multiple charges.
Typically, a judge will sentence the defendant on the count that carries the longest prison sentence. But Superior Court Judge Gary Polk is not bound by that practice.
Smith proposed in his filing on Friday that Haro first be sentenced to six years for violating his probation.
Haro had pleaded guilty to the court in 2023 to child abuse causing great bodily injury after he and his wife abused their 10-week-old daughter, Carolina, in 2018 to the point where she cannot use her arms and legs and has cerebral palsy, Smith wrote. Haro was ordered to serve 180 days in custody, and a six-year prison term was suspended as long as Haro did not break more laws. But on the same day Haro admitted killing Emmanuel, he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of ammunition.
After Haro finishes that six-year term, Smith wrote, he should begin serving a sentence of 25 years to life for assaulting Emmanuel. A one-year sentence for a misdemeanor count of filing a false police report — Haro and wife Rebecca claimed that Emmanuel had been kidnapped — should run at the same time, Smith wrote.
“Jake Haro murdered seven-month-old Emmanuel, but in reality, he comes before the court having taken the lives of two young children,” Smith wrote. “If there are lower forms of evil in this world, I am not aware of them.”
Deputy Public Defender Allison Lowe, in a document also filed Friday, said Haro should receive credit for admitting his guilt and doing so at an early stage of the case. Because of that, Lowe wrote, Polk should sentence him on the lighter of the two felonies, the murder charge that carries a penalty of 15 years to life.
Lowe added that Haro does not have the ability to pay fines or fees.
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