SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Ensenada, Mexico: Three Mexican men have been found guilty of murdering Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad during a surfing holiday in Baja California in 2024.
The parents of the two Australians, Debra and Martin Robinson, held hands as judge Raúl Hernández Arellano delivered his verdict and it was translated by their aide. There was no jury.
During a short break after the verdict, Debra and Martin hugged each other, and Debra, who was in tears, embraced Australian Ambassador to Mexico Crispin Conroy, who travelled to Ensenada for the verdict.
They were also embraced by Australian Federal Police detective leading senior constable Michelle Fisher, who supported them at the trial.
The men – Jesus Gerardo, also known as El Kekas, Irineo Francisco and Angel Jesus – were found guilty of aggravated homicide, aggravated robbery, violent robbery and violent vehicle theft.
Wearing orange prison jumpsuits, they stood while the judge read out his verdict, and did not visibly react. They did not speak to each other during a break after the judgment.
Martin and Debra Robinson attended every day of the five-week trial in Ensenada, on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, and were due to leave for the US within hours, before flying home to Perth in a few days.
On Thursday afternoon (Mexico time), they sat through six hours of closing arguments while just a metre away from their sons’ killers, who sat in a row behind their lawyers wearing orange prison jumpsuits.
The Robinson brothers and Rhoad disappeared in late April 2024 while they were camping in a remote surfing spot in beachside Baja California, a region also afflicted by drug trafficking and violent crime.
Their bodies, along with that of a local farmer, were found days later down the bottom of a well. They had been shot.
The prosecution successfully argued that the three tourists were victims of a robbery that went awry. The court heard the victims begged for mercy before they were murdered, and that the killers later mocked their pleas.
Jake, 31, was a doctor who was due to start a job at a hospital in Geelong when he returned to Australia. Callum, 32, was a talented sportsman who had played lacrosse professionally in the US. He was living in San Diego at the time.
More to come
Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.
