A local judge found three men guilty this Friday of the murders of two Australian brothers and their American friend in April 2024 in the Mexican state of Baja California. The trial for the triple homicide that shocked Mexico and attracted international attention concluded on Friday after Judge Raúl Hernández of the coastal city of Ensenada ruled that Jesús Gerardo García, alias “El Kekas”, Irineo Francisco “N” and Ángel Jesús “N” were responsible for the murders of Australians Callum and Jake Robinson and American Carter Redd Rhoad. The defendants, who had been detained for more than two years, were also found guilty of armed robbery and armed vehicle theft. Debra Robinson, the brothers’ mother, said in the courtroom that her sons’ murders had taken away “the future we had imagined with them,” BBC News, CBS News’ sister network, reported. Debra Robinson and her husband, Martin Robinson, were in court in the coastal city of Ensenada throughout the trial. “It’s difficult for a parent to lose a child, and we lost two children,” Martin Robinson said, the BBC reported. The three friends traveled to Baja California in April 2024 to surf, but shortly after arriving in the town of Punta San José, about 50 miles from Ensenada, they were reported missing. Their bodies were found on May 3 in a well. Photos of the surfers were placed on the beach in Ensenada, Mexico, on May 5, 2024. Karen Castaneda/AP García, identified as the perpetrator of the murders, was arrested in May 2024 in connection with the case, along with her ex-partner Ary Gisell Silva Raya, Irineo Francisco “N” and Ángel Jesús “N”. During the month-long trial, chilling details of the brutal crime were revealed. Silva Raya testified last month during a hearing that García confessed to him that he arrived at the tent where the foreigners were staying with a 9 mm pistol. Upon seeing him, they began to throw their belongings to prevent him from attacking them, and one of them begged for his life, which the attacker ignored, he said. The State Prosecutor’s Office reported that Silva Raya arrived in Punta San José on April 27, 2024, where he met the three foreigners and “instigated one of his companions to rob them,” which he carried out the next day. The woman, who was found in possession of one of the victims’ cell phones, was sentenced in November 2025 to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to “aggravated robbery with violence” and “vehicle theft with violence” in an expedited process. However, García and his two accomplices decided to go to trial. The judge will announce the final sentence on October 16. The Attorney General’s Office of the State of Baja California requested an “exemplary sentence” of 210 years in prison for each defendant. More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press in:
