Mexico: three people accused of murdering two Australian surfers and their American friend in 2024 found guilty

A Mexican court on Friday found the accused guilty of the murder of two Australian surfers and their American friend in 2024, which had aroused strong emotion in the countries of the three young men. The judge considered that the suspects, all three Mexicans, had acted with criminal intent, noted an AFP journalist present in the courtroom of the court in Ensenada, a city known as a surfing paradise and which was the scene of these crimes. The judge is expected to hand down the sentences next week.

Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33 respectively, were killed in April 2024 with their American friend Carter Rhoad, 30, while camping on a remote beach in Ensenada in Baja California (northwest Mexico). Their bodies were found several days after their disappearance, with gunshot wounds to the head. The prosecution emphasized during the trial that the three foreigners were caught defenseless and that one of the accused had boasted of having stolen goods from the victims.

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210 years in prison

The prosecution requested 210 years in prison for each of them, although the maximum sentence in Baja California is 60 years. The girlfriend of the main defendant was sentenced in November, in a separate trial, to 20 years in prison after admitting to having been the instigator of the theft aimed at stealing the tires of a van. The Robinson sons' mother, Debra, shed tears when the verdict was announced Friday. “What hurts the most is that, in their last moments, they were treated with such cruelty,” she testified Thursday.

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.