ENSENADA, Mexico (AP) — Three men accused of the 2024 murders of two Australian brothers and an American friend went on trial Monday in the Mexican state of Baja California, judicial officials said. The three men are charged with murder and aggravated robbery in the killing of three people who disappeared while camping and surfing on a remote Baja California beach. Jesús Gerardo García, known as “El Kekas,” and two other people identified as Irineo Francisco N. and Ángel Jesús N. appeared in court in the coastal city of Ensenada for the deaths of Callum Ryan Robinson, 33, Jake Martin Robinson, 30, and Jack Carter Rhoad, 30. The last names of the last two defendants were withheld in accordance with Mexican criminal procedure. Their bodies were found several days later, lying in a pit at the top of a cliff with gunshot wounds to the head. Martin Robinson, the father of the Australian brothers, attended the hearing with his wife. “I know they would want us to be here; they would do the same for us,” he told reporters before entering the courthouse. Prosecutors say the men died during an attempt to steal their truck, which was later found burned near their bodies. Garcia’s ex-partner, Silva Raya, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year after admitting that she instigated the robbery to steal the truck’s tires. The trial will continue Tuesday.___AP misidentified the reporter of the article. His name is Francisco Javier Cruz Villa.
