Killers of U.S., Australian surf trio sentenced to 158 years

A Mexican judge on Friday sentenced three men to more than 158 years of imprisonment for the murder of two Australian surfers and their American friend during an attempted robbery 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 beachside area near the city of Ensenada when they were attacked on April 27, 2024.

Their bodies were found days later, dumped in a cliff-top well, with gunshot wounds to their heads. A 9mm and a .45 caliber pistol were used in the attack.

Judge Raul Hernandez 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. 

On Friday, the court sentenced the three to 158 years and nine months each. Prosecutors had sought more than $100,000 in damages, but the judge rejected it and said any compensation would have to be pursued through civil proceedings.

“There can never be justice for the loss of a son, but we are grateful that these men will never hurt anyone else,” Rhoad’s mother Page said after learning 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 prosecutor’s office. 

Chief state prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez theorized that the killers drove by and saw the group’s pickup truck and tents and wanted to steal the vehicle’s tires and other parts. Andrade Ramírez said it was unlikely that the trio was targeted because they were tourists. 

Jesus Gerardo’s former girlfriend, Ary Gisell Silva, admitted to goading him into stealing the tires from the vehicle. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in November. She said Jesus Gerardo sneered at the trio’s plea for their lives and bragged about the items he stole from them. 

Prosecutors said the attack was followed by a hurried attempt to destroy evidence. The tents and truck were burned, and the bodies were dumped in a well at “a site that is extremely hard to get to” about 4 miles away, investigators said. 

The well had been 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 found a fourth body, which had been there much longer. Andrade Ramírez said the men who killed the surfers may have been behind the previous killing, but they have not been charged in relation to it. 

“Such cruelty” 

The Robinsons’ parents had traveled to Mexico from Australia for the month-long trial and left after the verdict. They had spoken movingly in court about their loss.

“It’s hard for a parent to lose a son, and we lost two sons,” Martin Robinson said.

Debra Robinson said what hurt the most was that her sons “were treated with such cruelty” in their final hours.

The families of the victims followed the sentencing hearing via video link. 

Rhoad’s mother and his fiancée, Natalie Weirtz, addressed the court by video link. Weirtz called for the accused to “be punished so that no other family suffers the same pain.” Rhoad and Weirtz had been set to marry just a few months after he was killed. 

Baja California is one of Mexico’s most violent states, plagued by organized crime and drug trafficking, although cartel activity does not usually affect tourists. Still, the callousness of the surfers’ killings shocked Ensenada, a surfing mecca that attracts visitors from around the world.

Other foreign visitors have been targeted in attacks on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

Two Australian surfers, Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman, were murdered in 2015 while traveling through the northwestern state of Sinaloa. Their bodies were later burned.