Australians Jake and Callum Robinson and American Carter Redd Rhoad were murdered in April 2024. Photos: Instagram
A Mexican judge convicted the three men on trial for the 2024 murders of two Australians and an American who were on a surf trip in Baja California. The convicted murderers will face final sentencing on October 16 with a maximum penalty of 210 years in prison for each, according to the Associated Press.
The ruling brings a two-and-a-half-year saga to an end that began on April 28, 2024 when Australians Jake and Callum Robinson and American Carter Redd Rhoad (previous reports had named him as Jack Carter Rhoad) went missing. Their bodies were found on May 3 in a well near where they were camping at Puna San José, 50 miles south of Ensenada in Baja California Norte.
The three men found guilty, Jesús Gerardo García, known as “El Kekas,” Irineo Francisco, and Ángel Jesús (whose last names are withheld under Mexican law), were also convicted on charges of armed robbery and armed carjacking.
Details of the case began to emerge when a fourth accomplice, Ary Gisell Silva Raya, pleaded guilty last year to charges of aggravated robbery and violent vehicle theft and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Her testimony alleged that she told her boyfriend at the time, Gerardo García, that the surfers had good phones and tires, to which he responded that he was going to go “f#%k up the gringos.”
Silva Raya said Gerardo García approached the tent the surfers were in with a 9mm handgun. The surfers threw their belongings and one of them begged for his life, but the attackers murdered them anyway.
The Robinson brothers’ parents, Martin and Debra, were present at the trial.
“Today’s guilty verdict is a significant moment in our long and painful journey to seek justice for our beautiful sons, Callum and Jake, and their friend Carter Rhoad, whose lives were so cruelly taken from them in 2024,” said father Martin Robinson. “No outcome can ever undo this tragedy, but we hope today marks an important step towards justice and allows us to continue honoring their lives and the extraordinary young men they were. They will never be forgotten.”
