The story of Jake Haro reads like a nightmare. The 32-year-old California father, now accused of murdering his 7-month-old son Emmanuel, once beat a newborn daughter so viciously that she’s permanently bedridden with cerebral palsy — and yet, he never spent a day in prison, reported the New York Post.A disturbing past ignoredBack in 2018, Haro’s then 10-week-old daughter Carolina was hospitalized with brain injuries, fractured bones, and bleeding eyes. Doctors said she’d been brutally abused. Carolina survived but was left with irreversible damage, unable to walk or talk.But instead of locking him away, a judge suspended Haro’s six-year sentence, giving him six months in a work program and probation. Prosecutors now say that decision paved the way for tragedy.“Someone who does that to a child belongs in prison, period,” fumed Riverside County DA Mike Hestrin. “If that judge had done his job, Emmanuel would be alive today.”Fake kidnapping, chilling confessionEarlier this month, Haro and his wife Rebecca, 41, claimed a stranger kidnapped Emmanuel outside a sporting goods store while Rebecca was changing his diaper. But detectives quickly realized the story was bogus, reported NYP.Days later, Haro allegedly confessed to an undercover inmate that he had killed his baby boy and tossed the body in a trash can. Officials fear Emmanuel may have already been dead for weeks, his short life ending in abuse just like his sister’s.Outrage and unanswered questionsBoth Haro and his wife are being held on $1 million bail, but Emmanuel’s remains have still not been found. The case has sparked outrage over how a convicted child abuser could be spared prison, only to go on and allegedly kill again.
