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, bearing gunshot wounds to the head.
The crimes had sparked a strong emotional response across surfing communities, with an intensive search campaign launched in the media and on social media after their disappearance.
Callum Robinson was a professional lacrosse player in the United States. His brother Jake was about to become a doctor. Jack Carter Rhoad, a California-based entrepreneur, was due to be married in a few months.
“There can never be justice for the loss of a child, but we are grateful that these men can no longer hurt anyone,” said Jack Carter Rhoad’s mother, Page, after the latest hearing that she and the parents of the Robinson brothers attended via videoconference.
The public prosecutor, who had sought 210 years in prison for each defendant, noted at trial that the three foreigners had been taken by surprise and unarmed, and that one of the killers boasted of possessing items stolen from the victims.
Premeditation
The three defendants, all Mexican, were found guilty on October 9.
The court had determined 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 defendants had already been sentenced to 20 years in prison last year after admitting to having been the instigator of the robbery. Ary Gisell Silva, 23, confessed to having urged her partner, “El Kekas,” and the other two men to rob the surfers because they had “good phones and good tires.”
After the guilty verdict was pronounced, 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 have lost two,” he emphasized during the trial.
He and his wife returned to Australia after attending the full proceedings in Ensenada, a city known as a surfing paradise.
Baja California, one of Mexico’s most violent states, is racked by organized crime and drug trafficking. But cartel activities rarely affect tourists.
Other foreign visitors have nonetheless been targeted by criminals along Mexico’s Pacific coast in recent years.
In November 2015, two Australian surfers traveling in the state of Sinaloa (northwest), Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman, were murdered and their bodies burned.
