A Mexican judge on Friday sentenced three men to more than 158 years in prison for the murder of two Australian surfers and their American friend during a flight attempt in 2024.
Brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33 respectively, and their friend Carter Rhoad, 30, were on a surfing trip to Mexico’s Pacific coast when they were shot dead in Baja California during an attempted robbery.
They were camping in a remote seaside area near the city of Ensenada when they were attacked on April 27, 2024.
Their bodies were found a few days later, dumped in a well at the top of a cliff, with gunshot wounds at their head. A 9mm caliber pistol and a .45 caliber pistol were used in the attack.
Judge Raul Hernández ruled that the three Mexican defendants, identified only by their first names – Jesus Gerardo, Irineo Francisco and Angel Jesus – acted with premeditation. Jesus Gerardo, known as “el Kekas”, had a criminal record before the attacks.
Karen Castaneda/AP 
On Friday, the court sentenced the three men to 158 years and nine months each. Prosecutors had asked for more than $100,000 in damages, but the judge rejected it and said any compensation would have to be obtained through civil proceedings.
“There can never be justice for the loss of a son, but we are grateful that these men will never harm anyone else,” Page, Rhoad’s mother, said after learning of the verdict.
Killers wanted to steal truck tires
The trio was attacked on April 28 or 29. Police found bloodstains and drag marks at their last known campsite, according to the Baja California State Attorney’s Office.
The state’s chief prosecutor, María Elena Andrade Ramírez, speculated that the killers passed by and saw the group’s van and tents and wanted to steal the vehicle’s tires and other parts. Andrade Ramírez said it was unlikely the trio were targeted because they were tourists.
Jesus Gerardo’s former girlfriend, Ary Gisell Silva, admitted to instigating him to steal the vehicle’s tires. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in November. She said Jesus Gerardo mocked the trio’s plea for their lives and bragged about the items he had stolen from them.
Prosecutors said the attack was followed by a hasty attempt to destroy evidence. The tents and truck were set on fire and the bodies were thrown into a well at “an extremely difficult to access site” about 6 kilometers away, investigators said.
GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images 
The well was covered with boards and was “literally almost impossible to find,” Andrade Ramírez said. It took two hours to remove the bodies, she said.
Investigators also discovered a fourth body, which had been there for much longer. Andrade Ramírez said the men who killed the surfers may have been behind the earlier murder, but had not been charged in connection with it.
“Such cruelty”
The Robinsons’ parents had traveled to Mexico from Australia to one month trial and left after the verdict. They spoke emotionally about their loss in court.
“It’s hard for a parent to lose a son, and we lost two sons,” Martin Robinson said.
Debra Robinson said what hurt her most was that her sons “were treated with such cruelty” in their final hours.
The victims’ families followed the sentencing hearing via video link.
Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images 
Rhoad’s mother and his fiancee, Natalie Weirtz, addressed the court via video link. Weirtz called for the defendants “to be punished so that no other family suffers the same pain.” Rhoad and Weirtz were to marry just months after his death.
Baja California is one of Mexico’s most violent states, plagued by organized crime and drug trafficking, although cartel activities generally do not affect tourists. Yet the callousness of the surfers’ killings shocked Ensenada, a surfing mecca that attracts visitors from around the world.
Other foreign visitors have been targets of attacks on Mexico’s Pacific coast.
Two Australian surfers, Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman, were murdered in 2015 while traveling through the state of Sinaloa, in the northwest of the country. Their bodies were then burned.
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