California mother sentenced to 12 years for infant death

A California mother has been sentenced to more than 12 years in state prison for her role in the death of her infant son, whose body has never been found. Rebecca Haro, 42, pleaded guilty Friday in Riverside County Superior Court to child abuse causing great bodily injury to a child under five, involuntary manslaughter, and accessory after the fact.

As part of a plea agreement, a murder charge and a charge of filing a false police report were dismissed. She was immediately sentenced to 12 years and eight months in prison. Her husband, Jake Haro, 33, pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder, child assault, and filing a false police report. He was sentenced in November to 32 years to life in state prison.

The case involves the couple’s seven-month-old son, Emmanuel, who was reported missing on the evening of August 14. Rebecca Haro told deputies she had been assaulted while changing the boy’s diaper outside a store in Yucaipa, claiming she was knocked unconscious and the assailant fled with the infant. However, an investigation by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department determined the kidnapping story was fabricated.

Authorities said forensic evidence from a crime...