Stepdad of Emma Cole cooperated with prosecutors. Did that help his sentence?

“Her name was Emma.”

That’s what Brandon Haas told investigators less than two minutes after waiving his Miranda rights in October 2020, following his arrest in the death of 3-year-old Emma Grace Cole.

The toddler, who is not biologically related to Haas – he is married to her mother, Kristie Cole Haas – was found by a child on the edge of a Smyrna softball field in Sept. 2019. Her identity remained unknown for a year, until one of Kristie Haas’ family members came across a forensic sketch.

Haas and his wife were initially charged with endangering the welfare of a child and tampering with evidence, though those charges were later upgraded to include child abuse. Kristie Haas was additionally charged with murder about seven months after the couple’s arrest.

Since their arrests, Brandon Haas has largely agreed to work with law enforcement, which allowed him to remain out on bond. His cooperation came to a head earlier this year when his attorneys negotiated a plea deal that required him to testify against his wife should her case go to trial.

She ultimately pleaded guilty in May after learning that her husband had also pleaded.

On Thursday, Haas' past two years of cooperation proved not to pay off as he was sentenced to four years in prison, significantly more than the sentence of probation his defense team had asked for, though a year less than prosecutors requested.

KRISTIE HAAS' SENTENCE: She starved and beat her daughter, then burned her body. Emma Grace Cole's mom sentenced

It was a muted win for Emma Grace’s family members, who have long said they didn’t believe probation alone would be sufficient for the 41-year-old’s role in the abuse and neglect of Emma Grace and her three half-siblings, and the subsequent coverup.

"Do you believe justice is in a world where Mr. Haas serves zero days in prison?" said Joshua Douthitt, Emma Grace's father, before the sentence was handed down. "He is just as responsible."

Admission of wrongdoing but failure to acknowledge punishment

In a sentencing memorandum submitted to the court last month, prosecutors noted Haas’ willingness to work with police, especially in contrast to his wife’s dishonesty.

Haas, prosecutors said, was “immediately ready” to tell police what had happened to Emma Grace and her siblings, and has maintained that she died on July 27, 2019 − which was made public for the first time Thursday. He admitted that she was punished for “bad behavior,” which supposedly began after her third birthday in January 2019.

He described it as “two, three months of just (expletive) hell,” in which the girl – who was being starved and beaten by her mother and forced to perform cruel exercises by both Haases – would throw tantrums and fail to do age-inappropriate chores to Kristie Haas’ liking.

THEIR PLEAS: Inside the plea deals for mom, stepdad of toddler found dead in Smyrna softball field

Kristie Haas also wrote in her diary about Emma Grace’s “apparent disobedience,” claiming the 3-year-old, whom photos show was incredibly emaciated, was trying to exert power over her.

“I feel as if these are (a) power/placement battle, like she does not have to listen/respect/obey me,” Kristie Haas wrote in her journal. “That I need to cater to her (and) let her do whatever she wants when she wants and how she wants. And if I don’t then she will show me whose (sic) boss.”

The April 21, 2021 entry continued:

“But when (Brandon) or other people she won’t. She wants everyone to feel bad for her, and (hope) I give her everything. Now with Brandon she doesn’t want anything, she just wants him to save her, and let her go ‘play.’ Which is sitting down doing nothing.”

While Haas worked during during the day, leaving his wife home with the children, he told police that he saw some of the behavior Kristie Haas described. When speaking of the toddler, he referred to her crudely, saying “she knew what to do to turn on the charm and could get what she wanted by being a little bitch,” according to the sentencing memorandum.

He also admitted to punishing all four children and described making them run in the basement using a weighted sled, spankings by both him and his wife – though he described hers as “excessive” – and having the children stand in the corner, according to the memorandum.

Haas also said he would put hot sauce under their tongues, have them write sentences, force them to hold weighted buckets of chains for “about 30 seconds” but “adding more each time if they moved, sometimes adding up to a total of an half hour”, and having them do 30-second wall-sits.

“He specifically mentioned forcing Emma to run in the basement,” prosecutors wrote.

The 41-year-old also said that at various times, Emma Grace was only fed rice and oatmeal, but he “understood this to be based on medical advice” Kristie Haaas had gotten, “because Emma was allegedly intentionally vomiting up other food,” prosecutors wrote.

REMEMBERING EMMA GRACE: A passion for ‘Paw Patrol’ and a persuasive smile

But medical records show that Kristie Haas hadn’t sought any medical attention for Emma since early 2018, despite taking the other three children to sick and wellness visits.

“Brandon did not think it was a punishment” to feed the toddler minimal food, prosecutors said.

“He denied that they withheld food from her – but the evidence shows otherwise, even assuming Brandon sincerely believed it,” the memorandum said.

At Thursday's sentencing, Haas did little to acknowledge the pain he inflicted on Emma Grace and her siblings, largely focusing his apology on the fact that he did not call 911 after the toddler died.

While he said it is "a decision I regret to this day and will forever," he largely blamed his wife for the abuse and did not mention what the children suffered.

Recently, he told pre-sentence investigators that he had "little to no knowledge" of his wife's abuse of her children − but immediately after his arrest, admitted his role in the crimes and detailed Kristie Haas' actions.

Kent County Superior Court Judge Noel Primos noted this Thursday.

"What concerns and troubles the court, however, is that what Mr. Haas has told the pre-sentence investigator ... and what he has told this court, both through counsel and his own statements, is very different from a full acceptance of responsibility."

Why target Emma Grace?

Though Haas may not have believed that he and his wife were torturing Emma Grace, court documents show he knew the 3-year-old was treated worse than her siblings.

He told police that Kristie Haas was harder on the girl, saying that when the other kids misbehaved, she would turn a blind eye. But when Emma Grace acted out, it was “the end of the world.”

In part, this was because Emma Grace’s conception was a “revenge” pregnancy, Kristie Haas told investigators.

Emma Grace was born to Joshua Douthitt, while another man fathered Kristie Haas’ other three kids.

At some point after the youngest was born, the father of Emma Grace’s three half-siblings became romantic with the mother of Douthitt’s children. The two remained together for years.

Angry and using drugs at the time, Kristie Haas was intimate with Douthitt. She told police she was trying to make “a point that I could get anybody.”

Emma Grace was conceived from that rendezvous, though Douthitt – who was in prison at the time of his daughter’s birth – refused to acknowledge that the girl was his. It wasn’t until later, when his aunt and Emma Grace’s great-aunt was granted custody of the baby, that he acknowledged he was the father.

Tanya Axson Conley, Douthitt’s aunt and Emma Grace’s former guardian, previously told Delaware Online/The News Journal repeatedly that after Emma Grace’s birth, Kristie Haas said she didn’t want the baby.

READ: How a judge’s decision, a parent’s will and a legal presumption failed Emma Grace Cole

Conley also gave court officials and attorneys the same account, according to records obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal.

Haas said these circumstances were why his wife targeted the girl. She would "whoop all their asses," he said, but was “harder on Emma because of ‘the situation how it came about,’" referring to the girl’s conception.

Despite post-arrest cooperation, Haas didn’t preemptively contact police

Though Haas began working with police soon after his arrest and has largely turned his life around, as detailed by both the 41-year-old and his attorney on Thursday, Emma Grace’s family remains angry, saying it does little to mitigate what he did and did not do.

Not only did he actively participate in the children’s abuse, said Kelsey Cole Navarro, Kristie Haas’ sister. But once Emma Grace was dead, he didn’t call the police.

HOW EMMA GRACE WAS ID'D: She was known only as a toddler found dead in a ball field. A year later, someone recognized this sketch

After that, Navarro said, he remained with his wife and the three living children for more than a year after they moved out of their Smyrna home and to the hotel where they were ultimately arrested. In the room were drugs and paraphernalia, and Haas admitted to investigators before taking a polygraph test that he’d used methamphetamine in the 24 hours prior.

“The defendant was not merely a silent collaborator," said prosecutor Kevin Smith, adding that Haas continued playing a role even after Emma Grace's death. "He joined her in the coverup."

At Thursday’s sentencing, Kristie Haas’ family stressed that what Haas did was heinous and he could have stopped it at any time. They added that the living children will forever live with how he traumatized them.

"He is just as guilty as Kristie," wrote Conley, Emma Grace's former guardian, in a victim impact statement read by the prosecutor on Thursday. "How do you hurt a child and put them through so much torture?"

Got a story tip or idea? Send to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com. For all things breaking news, follow her on Twitter at @izzihughes_

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Stepdad of Emma Grace Cole sentenced in abuse and murder case