Three Men Found Guilty of Murdering Surfer Brothers and Friend in Mexico

A judge in Ensenada, Mexico, has found three men guilty of murdering Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad, who were killed during a surfing trip to Baja California in April 2024. The verdict, delivered on Friday, October 9 after a trial lasting about a month, also convicted the men of armed robbery and vehicle theft, according to reports.

The coastline at Ensenada in Baja California, the port city where the trial was held.

The Verdict in Ensenada

Judge Raúl Hernández announced the guilty verdicts in the coastal city of Ensenada, in the Mexican state of Baja California, at the end of a trial that began in early September. The defendants were identified in reporting as Jesús Gerardo García, known as "El Kekas," and two co-defendants identified as Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús, whose full surnames are withheld in Mexican court reporting.

The court found that the three men were responsible for the deaths of Callum Robinson, 33, Jake Robinson, 30, and Carter Rhoad, 30. Australian reporting on the case said the judge ruled the killings were carried out with premeditation. All three defendants had been in custody for more than two years while the case moved through the courts.

As well as aggravated homicide, the men were convicted of violent robbery and vehicle theft. The defence had argued that the evidence was not sufficient to prove guilt, but the judge found that several witnesses had given credible and consistent testimony, according to reports from the courtroom.

A Surf Trip That Ended in Tragedy

The three victims travelled from the United States into Baja California in late April 2024 for a surfing and camping trip along Mexico's Pacific coast. Callum Robinson had been living in San Diego, where he had built a career as a lacrosse player. His younger brother Jake, a doctor from Perth, had travelled to California to visit him, and the two were joined by their friend Carter Rhoad, also 30 and also from San Diego.

They were last seen on April 27, 2024, camping near Punta San José, a remote beach area about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Ensenada. When they failed to arrive at planned accommodation and stopped answering messages, they were reported missing, and a search began that drew attention in Mexico, Australia and the United States.

On May 3, 2024, searchers found their bodies in a well in a remote area near Santo Tomás. All three men had suffered gunshot wounds to the head. Their vehicle was later found burned out in a separate location, according to reporting at the time. Prosecutors have consistently described the killings as a robbery that turned deadly.

What the Trial Heard

During the month-long trial, prosecutors set out their account of the night the men were killed. They said the victims were attacked at their campsite sometime late on April 27 or in the early hours that followed, after the defendants drove to the beach area where the three were staying.

A central witness was Ary Gisell Silva Raya, the former partner of the main defendant. She testified that García had described the attack to her afterwards, telling her he had approached the men's tent carrying a 9mm pistol. According to her testimony, the victims threw their belongings toward him in an effort to stop him, and one of them pleaded for his life.

Prosecutors said Silva Raya had met the three travellers on April 27 and had encouraged one of her companions to rob them, setting the events of the following night in motion. She was found in possession of a phone belonging to one of the victims, a detail that helped investigators piece together what had happened in the days after the men disappeared.

The judge, in delivering the verdict, offered his condolences to the Robinson family and said he was ashamed the murders had taken place in his country, according to Australian reporting from the court. He said he wanted to deliver justice within what Mexican law allows.

The Fourth Defendant

Silva Raya did not stand trial alongside the three men. In November 2025 she pleaded guilty in a separate, expedited proceeding to aggravated robbery with violence and vehicle theft with violence, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Reporting on her sentence broke it down as 14 years for vehicle robbery with violence and a further six years for robbery with violence, along with a fine.

That earlier outcome left García, Francisco and Jesús to face the full trial that concluded on Friday. Their decision to contest the charges meant the families sat through weeks of evidence about the final hours of the three men's lives. The Robinson family publicly thanked Mexican prosecutors and officials in Australia and the United States after the verdict.

Families in Court

Martin and Debra Robinson travelled from Perth, in Western Australia, to be in Ensenada for the trial, and Debra Robinson gave testimony on the final day. After the verdict, Martin Robinson told reporters the decision was a significant moment in the family's long search for justice, while stressing that no outcome could undo the loss of their sons and their friend.

Debra Robinson was more blunt about the limits of a verdict, saying in substance that it was a good thing but that it did not bring her sons back. She said she tried to hold on to her memories of Callum and Jake rather than dwell on the men who killed them, and that she did not want those men to gain notoriety from the case.

Rhoad's family took part from the United States. His mother and his fiancée, Natalie Weirtz, joined the hearing by video link, and Weirtz told the court the men were guilty and should be punished so that no other family would go through the same pain. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade welcomed the verdict as an important step toward justice, according to reports.

The Robinsons have set up a foundation in their sons' names, the Callum and Jake Robinson Foundation, intended to help young people live fuller lives in the brothers' honour. Family members said the foundation is one way of carrying the men's legacy forward beyond the courtroom.

A surfer rides a wave off the Baja California coast, the region the three men visited in 2024.

What This Means

The verdict closes the main trial in a case that shocked Mexico and drew sustained international attention in 2024. Baja California is one of Mexico's more violent states, affected by organised crime and drug trafficking, although attacks of this kind on foreign tourists are uncommon and cartel violence does not usually target visitors, according to reporting on the case.

For the tourism-dependent coast around Ensenada, the killings were a damaging blow. The area is popular with American surfers who cross the border for its beaches and breaks, and the discovery of the three men's bodies prompted memorial gatherings by local surfers and calls for better security in remote camping areas.

Reporting on the verdict also recalled that two other Australian surfers were killed while travelling through north-western Mexico in 2015, a reminder of the risks of camping in remote regions. For the families, the finding of premeditation matters: it establishes in court that this was a planned attack on three unarmed travellers, not a chance encounter.

Ensenada's municipal building, the Casa Municipal, in Baja California, Mexico.

What Happens Next

Sentencing is scheduled for October 16. The Baja California State Attorney General's Office has asked for an exemplary sentence of 210 years in prison for each defendant, according to reports, although reporting also notes that the maximum sentence available in Baja California is 60 years. The judge will announce the final sentences at that hearing.

The families are expected to travel home in the days after the verdict — the Robinsons via the United States and then back to Perth — before the sentencing hearing takes place. It is not yet clear whether the defendants will appeal, and no appeal had been reported as of the weekend.

What is clear is that October 16 will not be the end of the story for the people who loved Callum Robinson, Jake Robinson and Carter Rhoad. But after more than two years of investigation, a separate guilty plea, and a month-long trial on another continent from where two of the men grew up, the families now have the verdict they travelled to Ensenada to hear.