Three men have gone on trial in Mexico for the alleged murders of two Australian brothers and their American friend in 2024

Australian brothers Callum Robinson, 33, and Jake Robinson, 30, along with their friend Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, from California, went missing on April 27, 2024, during a surf trip in Baja California

Their bodies were found at the bottom of a well with gunshot wounds to their heads, six days later on May 32, 2024

Jesús Gerardo Cota, aka “El Kekas”, Irineo Francisco García Montaño and Ángel Jesús León Aguilera, have been charged with murder, aggravated robbery and auto theft

Prosecutors are seeking 200 years of incarceration for the accused men

In Nov. 2025, Gerardo García’s girlfriend, Ary Gisell Silva Raya, 23, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after admitting that she instigated the robbery

Brothers Jake Robinson, [left], and Callum Robinson, [center], and their friend Jack Carter Rhoad [right], were on a surfing trip in Mexico when they were killed during a suspected carjacking in April 2024

Three men have gone on trial in Mexico for the alleged murders of two Australian brothers and their American friend in 2024.
The bodies of Callum Robinson, 33, his brother Jake, 30, and their friend Carter Rhoad, 30, from California were found at the bottom of a cliff-top mine shaft in Mexico with gunshot wounds to their heads, early May 2024, six days after they went missing during a surf trip in Baja, California.
According to the charging documents in the murder trial of their alleged killers, which began Monday, the surfers were reported missing on April 27, 2024, while camping in Ensenada.
Baja California state officials have said the three tourists were probably killed while trying to stop the tires of their pickup truck being stolen in Ensenada, a coastal city located on the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico, about 80 miles south of San Diego.
That the assailants “intentionally surprised the surfers and shot them with firearms, taking their lives on Sunday, April 28,” according to the prosecution.
Their bodies were retrieved on May 3, 2024 from a well near La Bocana Beach, in the town of Santo Tomas in Baja California, Mexico.

Rescue workers retrieve the remains of the surfers from a a well near La Bocana Beach, in the town of Santo Tomas in Baja California, Mexico, on May 3, 2024

The surfers white pickup truck was later found burned, near the spot where the bodies were discovered

Jesús Gerardo García Cota and Irineo Francisco García Montaño, [photo], along with a third co-conspirator, Ángel Jesús León Aguilera, , are on trial for the murder of the Australian brothers and their American friend in Baja California in April 2024

Their white pickup truck was later found burned, as well as a phone linked to the missing surfers were found near the spot where the bodies were discovered
Prosecutors are seeking jail sentences of more than 200 years for Jesús Gerardo Cota, aka “El Kekas”, his brother Irineo Francisco García Montaño and a third male defendants, Ángel Jesús León Aguilera, have been charged with murder, aggravated robbery and auto theft.
On the opening day, Gerardo Cota, Francisco and Jesús were moved to a smaller courtroom amid accusations that some witnesses had been intimidated by people associated with the defendants.
Dozens of witnesses are expected to give evidence during the four-week, judge-only trial.
Three witnesses appeared before the court on Monday, including the stepson of one of the defendants, who described his stepfather as violent.
Testifying from an adjoining room with his face concealed, he said he accompanied the accused to the crime scene, waiting nearby when the “commotion” began.
“I heard a lot of noise,” he said, explaining that he had run away but rejoined the group after they called him.
He said they warned him that “the same thing that happened to the gringos would happen to him” if he said anything.

In November 2025, Ary Gisell Silva Raya, [photo], 24, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for robbery related to the killing of three surfers – brothers Jake Robinson and Callum Robinson, and their friend Jack Carter Rhoad in Mexico, a year earlier

Ary Gisell Silva Raya, 24, the girlfriend of the witness’s stepfather became the first person to be convicted over the tourists’ killings last year.
Convicted on charges related to the “violent robbery,” after admitting she had instigated the robbery in order to steal the pickup’s tires, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison in November 2025.
According to evidence presented by the prosecution, Silva was the first to make contact with the tourists and noticed they had valuables. Silva told a court that she had urged her boyfriend and two other men to rob the surfers, noting they had “good phones and good tires.”
Mexican prosecutors are pursuing jail sentences of more than 200 years for each of the defendants, as well as an additional 168-year sentence for the alleged ringleader.
Prosecutors say the victims were killed due to a bungled robbery, while the defense argued there was not enough evidence to prove that theory.
Callum Robinson was a member of Australia’s national lacrosse team and lived in San Diego where he was a professional lacrosse player. His younger brother Jake had traveled from Australia for the surf trip and was due to start a job as a doctor when he returned.
Tragically, their friend and traveling companion Jack Rhoad was killed a few months before his wedding.