Three men stood convicted Friday in an Ensenada courtroom of murdering Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad after the trio vanished on a 2024 Baja California surfing trip. Judge Raúl Hernández also found Jesús Gerardo García, known as “El Kekas,” along with Irineo Francisco “N” and Ángel Jesús “N,” guilty of armed robbery and armed carjacking, Fox News reported.
The Baja California State Attorney General’s Office is seeking 210 years in prison for each defendant. Hernández scheduled formal sentencing for Oct. 16 after a month-long trial that drew international attention to violence against visitors in the region.
The verdict closed a painful chapter that began when the three friends arrived near Punta San Jose, about 50 miles from Ensenada, to surf in April 2024 and were soon reported missing. Searchers found their bodies on May 3, 2024, dumped in a well near their burned white pickup truck.
Prosecutors described a roadside theft that escalated into killings. Chief state prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez said investigators believed thieves spotted the truck and tents, then met resistance when they tried to take tires and parts.
Ary Gisell Silva Raya, García’s former partner, later pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery with violence and vehicle theft with violence. She received a 20-year sentence in November 2025. Prosecutors said she met the surfers on April 27, 2024, and urged a companion to rob them.
Silva Raya testified that García approached the men’s tent with a 9mm pistol. The surfers threw belongings toward him in a bid to stop the attack. One begged to be spared. García ignored the plea. Breitbart coverage of the proceedings noted her account that García later admitted the shootings.
Authorities said she was found with one victim’s cellphone. In a May 2024 hearing account, García’s then-girlfriend recounted him saying he had done something to “three gringos,” then stating, “I killed them.” He also showed her a vehicle fitted with tires allegedly taken from the victims’ truck.
Callum Robinson was 33. Jake Robinson, a doctor who had looked for hospital work near surfing beaches, was 30. Carter Rhoad, their American friend, was also 30. All three died in the April 2024 attack.
Martín and Debra Robinson, parents of the Australian brothers, left the Ensenada courthouse after the guilty findings. Martín Robinson called the outcome a significant moment in the family’s long pursuit of justice, while stressing it could not undo their loss.
In a statement carried as the trial reached its end, he said the brothers would have stood by others in the same way. “I know they would want us to be here; they would do the same for us.”
The New York Post published his fuller reaction to the verdict itself.
"Today’s guilty verdict is a significant moment in our long and painful journey to seek justice for our beautiful sons, Callum and Jake, and their friend Carter Rhoad, whose lives were so cruelly taken from them in 2024"
Shortly after the bodies were recovered, Debra Robinson spoke at a San Diego beach tribute. She described young men who simply wanted to surf together and urged others to live with greater purpose in their memory.
"Our hearts are broken, and the world has become a darker place for us,"
She added that they were “young men enjoying their passion of surfing together” and called on people to “Live bigger, shine brighter, and love harder in their memory.”
The case underscored persistent risks facing Americans and other visitors in parts of Mexico where armed robbery can turn lethal in minutes. Families watching the Ensenada trial saw a justice system finally deliver convictions more than two years after the killings.
U.S. readers tracking crime south of the border have watched similar patterns of cartel-linked violence and official corruption. That includes pressure severe enough that Washington halted government operations in Michoacan after cartel threats targeted American interests.
Coastal routes and tourist corridors remain difficult to secure. Surf trips and beach travel sit uncomfortably close to the same shoreline corridors used for other illicit traffic, a reality also visible when speedboats loaded with illegal migrants reach California beaches.
Prosecutors still must convert Friday’s guilty findings into concrete sentences on Oct. 16. The 210-year terms sought for each man reflect the gravity of three murders plus the armed robbery and carjacking counts. Whether the final numbers match that request will test the court’s follow-through.
Mexican political scandals continue to raise separate questions about institutional reliability. Recent turmoil saw a Mexican governor accused of drug trafficking step down almost immediately after reclaiming office, feeding broader doubts about governance in high-crime states.
Cross-border enforcement remains a daily grind on the U.S. side as well. Federal officers keep intercepting major loads, including cases where CBP crews pulled 130 pounds of cocaine from an SUV at a Texas crossing, even as violence against foreigners in Baja still draws headlines.
Hernández has not yet announced the precise prison terms. Full legal names for the two defendants listed only as Irineo Francisco “N” and Ángel Jesús “N” were not detailed in public reporting tied to the verdict. Exact forensic exhibits beyond the summarized testimony and cellphone recovery were not laid out in full in the accounts of Friday’s decision.
Investigators earlier framed the motive around tire and parts theft from the pickup. Silva Raya’s testimony and prior plea supplied the clearest public narrative of how the confrontation at the tent unfolded. García’s reported admission to his girlfriend supplied another direct link presented during earlier hearings.
The international search that preceded the May 3, 2024, discovery showed how quickly a surf outing became a multinational missing-persons effort. Once the well yielded the three bodies, the case shifted from rescue to homicide prosecution in Baja California courts.
For the Robinson and Rhoad families, the guilty verdicts marked the first clear legal accounting. Martín Robinson described it as progress that still left the underlying loss untouched. Debra Robinson’s earlier beach remarks framed the personal void in plain terms that needed no legal translation.
Cartel-style intimidation is not confined to one country. Officials elsewhere have faced direct threats, including a French mayor forced into hiding after a drug cartel car-bomb threat, a reminder that organized criminal pressure travels.
Friday’s decision in Ensenada does not revise the April 2024 timeline. It does establish courtroom findings of murder, armed robbery, and armed carjacking against the three men who stood trial. Sentencing on Oct. 16 will set the punishment numbers the state has already said should reach 210 years apiece.
Law-and-order cases like this one test whether courts can deliver finality when foreign visitors are killed over a truck and a tent. Accountability after the fact is the minimum the victims’ families were owed.
