A Mexican judge has sentenced three men convicted of murdering Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their US friend Carter Rhoad to 158 years and nine months in jail each.
The Robinsons and Rhoad were killed in an apparent botched robbery of their truck on a secluded beach in Baja California in 2024 while they were on a surfing trip, the court heard during the trial.
The murders sent shockwaves around the world, particularly in Australia, as the area is usually safe from the violence seen in other parts of Mexico.
The guilty verdict was handed down last week. Debra Robinson, the brothers’ mother, told the courtroom that her sons’ murders had taken “the future we had imagined with them”.
The convicted killers’ full names were not given for legal reasons, meaning they were only identified as Jesús Gerardo, Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús.
In November last year, the girlfriend of the alleged ringleader, Jesús Gerardo (alias “El Kekas”), was sentenced in a separate trial to 20 years in prison. She had admitted to involvement in the robbery.
The court heard that the bodies of the victims were found dumped down a well with gunshot wounds to their heads.
At the time, the murders shocked locals and tourists in the beach town of Ensenada who were disturbed at the apparent ease and sheer pointlessness of the killings.
Ensenada has a reputation as a welcoming spot for surfers, but the chilling murders revealed how commonplace such extreme violence remains in Mexico.
The only explanation the authorities were able to give was that the surfers – all in their early 30s – had ultimately been murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Their killings happened barely 36 hours after they crossed into Mexico from the US. Their bodies, however, were not found for another week, when their families were able to identify them.
Local surfers also called for greater security for residents and visiting tourists, citing other recent examples of violence in the state. Tourism is a key part of the regional economy in Baja California.
Callum Robinson, 33
The eldest of the victims, Callum Robinson was a member of Australia’s national lacrosse team and a resident of San Diego, just across the US-Mexico border from Baja California.
He graduated from Stevenson University in Maryland in 2015.
Callum was also diabetic, noted his mother, Debra Robinson, while appealing on Facebook for help to find her missing sons.
His girlfriend, Emily Horwath, posted several images of the couple on Instagram after his death was announced.
“My heart is shattered into a million pieces,” she wrote. “I don’t have the words right now.”
In a statement posted online, Stevenson University athletics director Brett Adams wrote that Callum was “a stellar student, a stellar athlete and an even better friend”.
“We are all so thankful that he was a part of our lives,” his former coach, Paul Cantabene, said in the statement. “He lived an extraordinary life, but what is most impressive about Callum is what a loyal friend he was. Once you were his friend, you were friends for life.”
A friend of Callum, Hayley Jacobs, told Australia’s Nine News that he “lit up a room”, adding that he eventually hoped to return to Australia.
“I asked him what his goals were in life and he just said that he wanted to go back to Australia and raise a family and grow,” she added.
Ms Jacobs said she grew concerned after not hearing from Callum once his Mexico trip began. She saw him the day he left.
“I don’t know what’s going on but I think he’s mad at me,” she remembered thinking. “Like something doesn’t seem right.”
Jake Robinson, 30
Callum’s younger brother, Jake, left Australia about two weeks before the incident. He was an avid traveller who documented his trips – including a two-month visit to Indonesia last year – on Instagram.
Together, the pair attended the Coachella music festival in California before crossing the state’s border into Mexico.
After the trip, Jake planned to take a position working at a hospital in Geelong, a port city in the state of Victoria, about 40 miles (65km) from Melbourne.
He had previously worked at various regional hospitals in Australia, according to reports.
A friend of Jake, Jenny Nguy, paid tribute to him on social media, saying she “can’t stop thinking about you, your smile, your laugh, your kindness”.
“I can’t stop crying thinking about how your parents must be feeling,” she wrote.
Jack Carter Rhoad, 30
Mr Carter Rhoad, a friend of Callum, was a resident of San Diego and had been employed at a technology services company in the city since December 2019.
In 2012, he founded a clothes company, Loma Apparel.
Between 2014-15, he played professional football at Deportivo Mixto in Guatemala’s top-tier national league.
He had previously volunteered on humanitarian trips to South Africa, Guatemala and Mexico.
Mr Rhoad had been due to marry his fiancee, Natalie Wiertz, in Columbus, Ohio, on 17 August. The pair had announced their engagement in July last year, with Ms Wiertz celebrating her hen do only last month.
On a GoFundMe page, a friend of the Rhoad family, Aubrey Byers, wrote that Mr Rhoad’s relatives and Ms Wiertz were going through “an unimaginably difficult time”.
“Their presence brought immeasurable joy, love, and kindness to those around them, leaving a mark on our lives,” Mr Penland wrote of the three men.
Source: bbc.co.uk
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