Meningitis Medical term in a card on doctor hand, medical conceptual image. Getty/Md Saiful Islam Khan
(LANGHORNE, Pa.) — A Pennsylvania high school student died from bacterial meningitis, according to the local school district.
Ryan Duffy, 18, a senior at Neshaminy High School in Langhorne, contracted Streptococcus Pneumoniae Meningitis last week and was treated in the ICU before dying Tuesday, according to a letter sent to parents by the Neshaminy School District and obtained by ABC News.
“It is with great sadness that we inform you of the death of a member of our school community, Ryan Duffy, who passed away earlier today, October 14, 2025. Ryan’s family has given us permission to share with you that he became suddenly ill late last week and was admitted to the ICU at the hospital,” the letter read. “We hold the family in our thoughts and wish them strength in this difficult time. Ryan was diagnosed with Streptococcus Pneumoniae Meningitis.”
The Neshaminy School District is using enhanced cleaning protocols at Neshaminy High School, but the school said that Duffy’s form of meningitis is not typically contagious.
“It is important to note that this type of meningitis is not usually contagious in a school setting and does not typically spread through casual contact, such as being in the same classroom or cafeteria,” the letter continued.
According to the CDC, though this type of meningitis is spread through droplets that are released when you cough, sneeze, or talk, it is not highly contagious.
Parents in the community are mourning Duff’s death from the disease.
“These old diseases that have been around for years are still affecting people,” said Eddie Maurer, a parent from Bensalem, told ABC News affiliate ABC 6. “It just doesn’t make sense. It’s hard to believe.”
Bacterial meningitis causes inflammation of the brain’s protective lining and spinal cord and can lead to death in a few hours if not treated properly, according to the CDC.
Symptoms include severe headaches, high fevers, excessive vomiting, stiff neck and confusion, according to the CDC, and the best way to inoculate yourself against the disease is through vaccination.
“Most people recover from bacterial meningitis if managed properly,” the CDC page on the infection says, but “those who recover can have permanent disabilities.”
It is not yet known how Duffy contracted the infection.
(NEW YORK) — The Department of Justice brought charges Thursday against the voting machine company Smartmatic, accusing it of allegedly bribing an official in the Philippines to win contracts, according to court papers filed in the Southern District of Florida.
The indictment accuses Smartmatic and a number of employees of bribing a Philippine official in order to retain business, specifically in relation to the purchase of voting machines in the 2016 Philippines election.
The charges come as Smartmatic is involved in a multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit against Fox News, having accused the channel of “knowingly and intentionally” spreading false claims of voting machine fraud in the wake of the 2020 election, causing Smartmatic to lose business.
Fox has said they were covering newsworthy allegations made by President Donald Trump and others, and has accused Smartmatic of looking to profit off a lawsuit.
Thursday’s indictment alleges that the Philippine bribes exceeded $1 million.
“To finance the bribes, the co-conspirators allegedly created a slush fund by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine supplied for the 2016 Philippine elections,” a DOJ press release on the charges stated. “To conceal the corrupt payments, they used coded language, created fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements, and routed transactions through bank accounts in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., including within the Southern District of Florida.”
The superseding indictment comes after the Department of Justice previously indicted a number of Smartmatic officials, but not the company itself.
The charges filed Thursday against Smartmatic include conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering, among others.
Smartmatic in a statement said they “categorically deny those allegations” and called the indictment “wrong on the facts and wrong on the law,” adding that they believe the move was “targeted, political, and unjust.”
“We will contest the claims, and we are confident we will prevail in court,” the statement said.
Smartmatic also said the indictment was “more of the same” from the previous indictment last year, which they called “spurious.” The statement also claimed that the U.S. attorney in the case had been “misled and politically influenced by powerful interests, despite our extensive cooperation with the government.”
“Smartmatic will continue to stand by its people and principles,” the statement said. “We will not be intimidated by those pulling the strings of power.”
(NEW YORK) — A measles outbreak in South Carolina has grown to 15 cases, state health officials said on Friday.
The newly identified cases were close contacts of people who were quarantining at home and were not in any school settings when contagious, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Health (SCDPH).
“Because they were quarantining before they became infectious, no additional exposures have occurred with these new cases,” the department said.
The outbreak was first identified in the South Carolina upstate region in early October, according to the SCDPH. Several of the cases have been confirmed in Spartanburg County, which sits on the border with North Carolina.
Last week, at least two elementary schools in Spartanburg County sent more than 150 unvaccinated students home to quarantine for 21 days after being exposed to measles. Since then, at least five of the 150 children have contracted the disease, officials said.
In a press conference earlier this week, South Carolina health officials said more than 100 students from Global Academy of South Carolina and Fairforest Elementary are continuing to quarantine at home.
Of the more than 600 students at Global Academy, a K-5 charter school, just 17% have their required immunizations, state health department data shows.
Meanwhile, Fairforest has a vaccination rate of 85%, according to the data. A vaccination rate of 95% is typically considered to be when a location or an area has herd immunity to help prevent outbreaks in communities.
Health officials announced earlier this week that they are deploying a mobile vaccination unit in the county over the next two weeks to provide measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shots for free.
It comes as the U.S. is seeing the highest number of measles cases in more than 30 years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As of Wednesday, 1,596 cases have been confirmed in 41 states, with more than 90% of cases among those who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.
CDC data shows 44 measles outbreaks have been reported across the U.S. so far this year, compared to 16 outbreaks reported all of last year.
The CDC currently recommends that people receive two MMR vaccine doses, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC said.
Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000 due to the highly effective vaccination program, according to the CDC. However, CDC data shows vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years.
During the 2024-2025 school year, 92.5% of kindergartners received the MMR vaccine, according to data. This is lower than the 92.7% seen the previous school year and the 95.2% seen in the 2019-2020 school year, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(NEW YORK) — In the aftermath of a destructive typhoon, historic floodwaters have destroyed remote communities across western Alaska, causing hundreds of evacuations that could continue for days, officials said.
“This is still a very much fluid situation; we are still in the process of evacuating hundreds of people from the affected towns,” Michelle Torres, the outreach branch chief for the state of Alaska, told ABC News on Thursday.
These devastating floods were fueled by remnants of Typhoon Halong, which originated in the northern Philippine Sea on Oct. 5. This typhoon brought the massive flooding to these western regions of Alaska on Saturday night into Sunday, sweeping across the west coast of the state on Monday and dumping more than 6 feet of water in some areas. Along with coastal flooding, wind gusts reached 50 to 100 mph in some of the 49 communities affected.
Remote, coastal towns have been hit the hardest by the floods, including Kipnuk, Alaska, which is about 500 miles from Anchorage.
So far, 264 people were evacuated on Thursday and 211 on Wednesday from these impacted communities by the Alaska National Guard, according to Jeremy Zidek from the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The evacuations of these flooded-out, smaller communities will continue “for days” as there are likely hundreds left to be evacuated, Zidek said. Both local agencies and private charters are being used for the evacuations, Zidek said.
At least one person has died from these floods, with two people remaining missing, officials said. But, officials said there is currently no concern that additional people may be missing.
Photos from the Alaska National Guard show around 300 displaced individuals taking shelter in a C-17 aircraft.
“Through it all, we stand shoulder to shoulder with our neighbors, evacuating those displaced, flying supplies and lending a helping hand wherever it’s needed most,” the Alaska National Guard said in a statement on Friday.
At least 2,000 people from rural Alaska have been displaced, according to the Alaska Community Foundation.
“Alaskans have already come together to raise more than $1 million in support – and the fund is still growing,” the Alaska Community Foundation said in a news release.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Thursday that the U.S. Coast Guard has rescued 38 people from the flood and helped “evacuate 28 people from a temporary shelter.”
“The Coast Guard continues to support the state of Alaska’s response efforts in impacted communities,” Noem said in a post on X on Thursday.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced on Thursday that he signed an application for a Presidential Disaster Declaration, asking President Donald Trump to “declare a major disaster for Alaska” as a result of this storm.
Dunleavy previously declared a state of emergency for “all areas impacted or threatened by these storms.”
Alaska previously experienced major flooding in 2023 when a glacier lake outburst occurred on the Mendenhall Glacier, located about 12 miles north of Juneau, Alaska. The 2023 flooding destroyed homes situated along the river, with decades’ worth of erosion happening in one weekend, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
ABC News’ Matt Gutman and Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.
John Bolton leaves his home on October 17, 2025 in Bethesda, Maryland. Former national security adviser Bolton was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday. (Photo by Alex Kent/Getty Images)
(GREENBELT, Md.) — Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton has pleaded not guilty to all 18 counts of an indictment charging him with unlawful retention and dissemination of national defense information.
Bolton entered his not guilty plea Friday morning in a hearing in federal court in Maryland before Chief Magistrate Judge Timothy Sullivan.
He was indicted by a grand jury Thursday on charges that he allegedly unlawfully transmitted and retained classified documents.
The indictment comes on the heels of the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James as President Donald Trump continues what critics call a campaign of retribution against his perceived political foes.
Unlike at Comey’s arraignment, Bolton’s attorney Abbe Lowell on Friday did not offer much in the way of any preview of his defense strategy for the charges Bolton is facing.
Judge Sullivan set a Nov. 14 deadline for pretrial motions to be filed in the case, and also set a scheduling conference for Nov. 21.
Bolton appeared at ease throughout the hearing, and responded to the judge’s standard questions asking him if he understood the nature of the charges against him and the potential penalties he could face if he is convicted.
He was released on recognizance with regular release conditions, and will have to surrender his passport to his legal counsel, and is prohibited from traveling outside of the U.S. unless he gets pre-approval from the court.
Bolton is charged with eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information as well as 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information.
Seven of the transmissions allegedly occurred during the time when Bolton was serving at Trump’s national security adviser in 2018 and 2019, while another document was allegedly sent by Bolton just days after President Donald Trump removed him from the administration in September of 2019.
The indictment accuses Bolton of abusing his position as national security adviser by sharing “more than a thousand pages” of information in “diary-like entries” about his day-to-day activities with two recipients identified only as “Individual 1” and “Individual 2,” who prosecutors say are Bolton’s relatives.
Sources told ABC News that the relatives referred to in the indictment as ‘Individual 1’ and ‘Individual 2’ are Bolton’s wife and daughter.
Bolton has been a target of Trump’s ire since leaving Trump’s first administration and publishing a tell-all book. Federal agents in August searched Bolton’s Maryland residence and Washington, D.C., office, related to allegations that Bolton possessed classified information.
The investigation is being run out of the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland, unlike the Comey and James probes which are being conducted by the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, who sources say brought the Comey and James charges against the advice of career prosecutors.
Comey, who was indicted on charges of lying to Congress, and James, who is charged with mortgage fraud, have both denied wrongdoing.
John Bolton leaves his home on October 17, 2025 in Bethesda, Maryland. Former national security adviser Bolton was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday. (Photo by Alex Kent/Getty Images)
(GREENBELT, Md.) — Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton is in a Maryland courthouse this morning where’s he’s scheduled to make his first court appearance at 11 a.m. ET after being indicted by a grand jury Thursday on charges that he allegedly unlawfully transmitted and retained classified documents.
Bolton arrived at the federal courthouse before 9 a.m. ET Friday.
The indictment charges Bolton with eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information as well as 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information.
Seven of the transmissions allegedly occurred during the time when Bolton was serving at Trump’s national security adviser in 2018 and 2019, while another document was allegedly sent by Bolton just days after President Donald Trump removed him from the administration in September of 2019.
The indictment accuses Bolton of abusing his position as national security adviser by sharing “more than a thousand pages” of information in “diary-like entries” about his day-to-day activities with two recipients identified only as “Individual 1” and “Individual 2,” who prosecutors say are Bolton’s relatives.
Sources told ABC News that the relatives referred to in the indictment as ‘Individual 1’ and ‘Individual 2’ are Bolton’s wife and daughter.
The indictment comes on the heels of the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James as Trump continues what critics call a campaign of retribution against his perceived political foes.
Federal agents in August searched Bolton’s Maryland residence and Washington, D.C., office, related to allegations that Bolton possessed classified information.
Luigi Mangione appears in court for a hearing on his state murder charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Supreme Court on September 16, 2025 in New York City. (Curtis Means/Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Trump administration is making Luigi Mangione “a pawn to further its political agenda” and uttering or posting statements about him that are prejudicing the accused killer’s prospects at a fair trial, his attorneys argued Friday in a new court filing that asked a federal judge to either dismiss the indictment or take the death penalty off the table.
Federal prosecutors said President Donald Trump’s social media posts calling Mangione “a pure assassin,” and subsequent reposts by Justice Department officials, did not prejudice Mangione “because the statements were made by persons not associated with this matter.” The defense said the government can’t make that claim because of Trump’s unprecedented intervention in Justice Department matters.
“Unlike any of its predecessors since the Watergate era, the Department of Justice has not acted independently of the White House in this case — or in several others,” the new defense filing said. “This departure from the longstanding principle of prosecutorial independence has created a blurred and constitutionally troubling line between the Department of Justice and the Executive Office of the President.”
Mangione is accused of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024. He pleaded not guilty to federal charges, including one death-eligible count of using a firearm to commit murder, and pleaded not guilty to state charges in New York and Pennsylvania. Defense attorneys have argued in a separate filing the death-eligible charge should not apply.
In its new filing, Mangione’s defense team expressed concern about tainting the pool of prospective jurors.
“The Department of Justice and the White House have coordinated to cultivate and disseminate negative public rhetoric deliberately designed to taint the prospective jury pool,” defense attorneys Karen Agnifilo and Avi Moskowitz wrote. “The significance of these prejudicial statements is that they have life or death consequences for Mr. Mangione.”
Prosecutors have argued that since no trial date has been set there will be ample time for the public to forget about anything Trump or others have said about Mangione, whose alleged attack was captured on video and who, police said, was arrested with the murder weapon in his backpack.
The defense said the statements still violate the rules.
“The government has engaged in purposeful, repeated, unlawful actions specifically designed to hurt Mr. Mangione’s chances at fair legal proceedings and a fair trial and as part of a wider government effort to further a political agenda,” the defense said. “These same officials — whether acting directly or through their subordinates — have continued on this course even after this Court has explicitly directed them not to has caused this case to be unlike any prior death penalty case.”
Meanwhile, Mangione’s Pennsylvania case is effectively on hold as he sits in jail in Brooklyn, New York, according to court documents.
In Pennsylvania, where Mangione was captured after a manhunt, he faces charges including carrying a firearm without a license.
Federal officials previously denied a request by Blair County, Pennsylvania, prosecutors to allow Mangione to be taken to Pennsylvania to make in-person court appearances, and Mangione has thus far refused to appear remotely.
A Pennsylvania judge ruled earlier this week that the case ultimately can’t move forward until Mangione can appear in person, according to court documents obtained by ABC News. The judge gave Mangione’s defense team 14 days to file a formal request for an in-person hearing or reconsider appearing remotely.
ABC News’ Jon Haworth and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Trump, arrives home as the FBI searches his house August 22, 2025 in Bethesda, Maryland. The FBI conducted a court-authorized search of Bolton’s home. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton was indicted by a grand jury Thursday on charges that he allegedly unlawfully transmitted and retained classified documents.
The indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Maryland, charges Bolton with eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information as well as 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information.
Prosecutors accuse Bolton of using a non-government personal email account and messaging application to transmit at least eight documents to unauthorized individuals that contained information classified at levels ranging from Secret to Top Secret.
Seven of the transmissions allegedly occurred during the time when Bolton was serving at Trump’s national security adviser in 2018 and 2019, while another document was allegedly sent by Bolton just days after President Donald Trump removed him from the administration in September of 2019.
“For four decades, I have devoted my life to America’s foreign policy and national security. I would never compromise those goals,” Bolton said in a lengthy statement, saying the indictment is part of a pattern of “Donald Trump’s retribution” against him since leaving Trump’s first administration and publishing a tell-all book.
“I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power,” Bolton said in the statement.
The move to indict Bolton comes on the heels of the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James as President Donald Trump continues what critics call a campaign of retribution against his perceived political foes.
Federal agents in August searched Bolton’s Maryland residence and Washington, D.C., office, related to allegations that Bolton possessed classified information.
Prosecutors say one document listed in the indictment “reveals intelligence about future attack by adversarial group in another country.” Others allegedly contain information about foreign partners sharing sensitive information with the U.S. intelligence community; intelligence related to a foreign adversary’s missile launch plans; intelligence on leaders of a U.S. adversary; and one that detailed plans of covert action by the U.S. government.
The indictment accuses Bolton of abusing his position as national security adviser by sharing “more than a thousand pages” of information in “diary-like entries” about his day-to-day activities with two recipients identified only as “Individual 1” and “Individual 2,” who prosecutors say are Bolton’s relatives.
Sources told ABC News that the relatives referred to in the indictment as ‘Individual 1’ and ‘Individual 2’ are Bolton’s wife and daughter.
Bolton’s wife was present at their home the day the search was executed nearly two months ago.
It was not immediately clear which is believed to be Individual 1 or 2.
Prosecutors further allege that Bolton unlawfully retained documents, writing and notes containing national defense information ranging to levels of Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information at his home in Maryland, stored both as paper files and on a number of personal devices.
The indictment says that at some point after Bolton left office as national security adviser, a cyber actor believed to be associated with Iran hacked his personal email account and gained access to the classified information he had previously emailed to his relatives.
What Bolton and his attorneys say
Bolton has denied ever unlawfully removing classified materials from his time in government and has said no such information was published in his 2020 memoir “The Room Where It Happened.”
In his statement on Thursday, Bolton said his book was “reviewed and approved by the appropriate, experienced career clearance officials.”
Regarding the 2021 email hack, Bolton said the FBI “was made fully aware.”
“These charges are not just about his focus on me or my diaries, but his intensive effort to intimidate his opponents, to ensure that he alone determines what is said about his conduct,” Bolton said in the statement, referring to Trump. “Dissent and disagreement are foundational to America’s constitutional system, and vitally important to our freedom.”
Bolton’s attorneys have denied he ever mishandled classified information and said documents investigators found in their search of his home and residence were no longer considered classified.
“The underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years ago,” Bolton’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement. “These charges stem from portions of Amb. Bolton’s personal diaries over his 45-year career — records that are unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021. We look forward to proving once again that Amb. Bolton did not unlawfully share or store any information.”
“There is one tier of justice for all Americans,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a DOJ statement announcing the indictment. “Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”
The 10 documents the indictment says were unlawfully retained by Bolton were allegedly seized during the searches of his home and office in August, and contained similar information to the documents Bolton is alleged to have unlawfully transmitted during his time as national security adviser.
The investigation is being run out of the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland, unlike the Comey and James probes which are being conducted by the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, who sources say brought the Comey and James charges against the advice of career prosecutors.
Comey, who was indicted on charges of lying to Congress, and James, who is charged with mortgage fraud, have both denied wrongdoing.
Last month, a federal judge unsealed a redacted version of the affidavit that had been assembled by prosecutors in order to execute their court-authorized search of Bolton’s home. Most of the document concerned allegations surrounding the publication of Bolton’s book, which the first Trump administration unsuccessfully sued to block.
The federal judge overseeing that lawsuit expressed grave concerns over whether Bolton had included highly classified information in his book that could potentially compromise national security.
On the day that Bolton’s home and office were searched, Trump said that he was “unaware” of the searches but went on to call Bolton a “sleazebag.” Referencing the FBI’s 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago home in his own classified documents case, Trump told reporters that having your home searched is “not a good feeling.”
Trump pleaded not guilty in June 2023 to 40 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House in 2021, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information and took steps to thwart the government’s efforts to get the documents back.
After Trump was reelected president last November, the case was dropped due to a long-standing Justice Department policy barring the prosecution of a sitting president.
Trump, asked about Bolton in a June 2022 Oval Office interview with Fox News, said, “He took classified information and he published it, during a presidency. It’s one thing to write a book after. During. And I believe that he’s a criminal, and I believe, frankly, he should go to jail for that, and that probably, possibly will happen. That’s what should happen.”
A group ambushed corrections and police officers outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4, 2025, creating a distraction with fireworks and graffiti before firing upon officers with semiautomatic rifles. Mark David Smith/Fort Worth Star-Telegram via TNS via Getty Images, FILE
(WASHINGTON) — Federal prosecutors have secured a grand jury indictment of two alleged followers of the antifa movement on terrorism-related charges stemming from their involvement in a July 4 attack on an ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, according to newly unsealed court records.
The indictment appears to be the first time a charge of material support to terrorism has been applied to alleged followers of the anti-fascist movement, following President Donald Trump’s declaration officially designating the movement as a domestic terrorist organization.
Experts have repeatedly questioned the legality of that proclamation — as did senior officials in law enforcement during Trump’s first term in office — given that the movement has no publicly known leadership structure and there are significant statutory limitations on law enforcement being able to designate domestic groups as terrorists.
The two men who were indicted, Cameron Arnold and Zachary Evetts, were previously charged in connection with the alleged ambush of federal agents at the ICE facility and attempting to kill two correctional officers and an Alvarado police officer, but the grand jury indictment charges both with an additional count of providing material support to terrorists.
In the indictment, filed in the Northern District of Texas, prosecutors describe antifa as a “militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups primarily ascribing to a revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology, which explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law.”
They allege that Arnold and Evetts operated as part of an “Antifa cell” that planned and coordinated the July 4 attack on the ICE facility using firearms and fireworks to target correctional officers.
“Some Antifa Cell members discussed logistics, previous site reconnaissance, and locations of security cameras at the facility. They exchanged a map of Prarieland and the surrounding area that showed the locations of nearby police stations,” the indictment says. “One Antifa Cell member, for example, said in one group chat that they would be “bringing a wagon to hold armor and rifles.”
Jake Haro, 32, and Rebecca Haro, 41, were arrested on Aug. 22 for the murder of their 7-month-old child, Emmanuel Haro, who has been missing since Aug. 14, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office. Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office
(LOS ANGELES) — The father of Emmanuel Haro, the 7-month-old in California who has been missing since August, has pleaded guilty to the baby’s murder.
Jake Haro, 32, pleaded guilty in court on Thursday to all charges, including assault causing bodily harm to a child “resulting in the death of said child” and filing a false police report, according to court records.
The father, who previously pleaded not guilty with his wife Rebecca Haro in September, cried in court on Thursday while he was giving his plea.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel’s mother, 41-year-old Rebecca Haro, pleaded not guilty to an amended complaint on Thursday, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Nov 3. It remains unclear what is in the complaint, according to Los Angeles ABC station KABC.
Jake Haro’s sentencing is also scheduled for Nov. 3.
Officials have not announced whether they have located the baby’s remains.
The 7-month-old was reported missing on Aug. 14 at approximately 7:47 p.m. local time after his mother “reported being attacked outside a retail store on Yucaipa Boulevard,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Aug. 15.
When he was reported missing, Emmanuel’s mother told officials that “while she stood outside her vehicle, changing the child’s diaper, she was physically assaulted by an unknown male and rendered unconscious,” authorities said.
Authorities later said the mother was “confronted with inconsistencies in her initial statement,” leading officials to say they were “unable to rule out foul play in the disappearance of Emmanuel,” officials said.
Jake and Rebecca Haro were arrested and charged for the child’s murder on Aug. 22, officials said.
In August, officials announced they had a “pretty strong indication” on the location of the child’s remains and they believed Emmanuel was “severely abused over a period of time.”
“The filing in this case reflects our belief that baby Emmanuel was abused over time and that eventually because of that abuse, he succumbed to those injuries,” Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said during a press conference in August.
Hestrin said Jake Haro, who he described as an “experienced child abuser,” “should have gone to prison” due to previously abusing another child he had with his ex-wife back in 2018, but a judge at the time granted him probation — a ruling Hestrin called an “outrageous error in judgment.” Authorities said the child in that case has been left bedridden.
“If that judge had done his job as he should have done, Emmanuel would be alive today,” Hestrin said.
