Mexico: the murderers of two Australian surfers and an American sentenced to 158 years in prison

A Mexican court on Friday sentenced each of the three accused to 158 years and nine months in prison for the murder of two Australian surfers and their American friend in April 2024 on the country's Pacific coast, crimes that shocked the victims' countries.

Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33 respectively, and their American friend Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, were killed while camping on a remote beach in Ensenada, in the Mexican state of Baja California. Their bodies were found several days after their disappearance, with gunshot wounds to the head.

The crimes aroused strong emotion in the surfers' countries, where an intense search campaign was launched in the media and on social networks following their disappearance. Callum Robinson was a professional lacrosse player in the United States. His brother Jake was on his way to becoming a doctor. Jack Carter Rhoad, an entrepreneur living in California, was to be married a few months later.

“Good phones and good tires”

“There can never be justice for the loss of a child, but we are grateful that these men can no longer harm anyone,” Jack Carter Rhoad's mother, Page, said after the final hearing, which she and the Robinson brothers' parents watched by videoconference. The public prosecutor, who had requested 210 years in prison for each accused, had emphasized during the trial that the three foreigners had been surprised defenseless, and that one of the murderers had boasted of holding property stolen from the victims.

The three accused, all Mexicans, were found guilty on October 9. The court then found that Jesus Gerardo, nicknamed “El Kekas”, Irineo Francisco and Angel Jesus – identified only by their first names under local law – had acted with premeditation. The girlfriend of one of the accused was already sentenced to 20 years in prison last year after admitting to having instigated the theft. Ary Gisell Silva, 23, admitted to having incited his companion, “El Kekas”, and the two other men to rob the surfers because they had “good phones and good tires”.

“Significant moment”

After the guilty verdict was handed down, Martin Robinson, the father of the two Australians, spoke of “a significant moment in our long and painful journey to obtain justice for our beloved children”. “It’s terrible for a parent to lose a child, and we lost two,” he said during the trial.

He and his wife returned to Australia after attending the entire trial in Ensenada, a city known as a surfing paradise. Baja California, one of the most violent states in Mexico, is plagued by organized crime and drug trafficking. But cartel activities rarely affect tourists there.

However, other foreign visitors have been targeted by criminals on Mexico's Pacific coast in recent years. In November 2015, two Australian surfers who were traveling in the state of Sinaloa (northwest), Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman, were murdered and their bodies burned.