Accused killers of American and Australian surfers go on trial in Mexico

Three men accused of killing two Australian surfers and an American at a Mexican surfing hotspot went on trial Monday, two years after their killings in a suspected robbery. 

Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, 30 and 33, respectively, and their 30-year-old American friend Jack Carter Rhoad were on a surfing trip to Mexico’s Pacific coast in April 2024 when they were shot dead in Baja California state.

Authorities say the men were murdered during an attempt to steal their pickup truck, which was found burned near their bodies.

They had been camping in a remote beachside area when they were attacked. Their bodies were found dumped in a cliff-top shaft several days after they went missing, and they bore gunshot wounds to their heads. 

The Robinsons’ parents traveled to the port city of Ensenada for the start of the proceedings.

Bereaved mother Debra Robinson stared at the accused before bursting into tears in the courtroom.

“It’s about representing our sons, being here for them. I know they want us to be here,” her partner, Martin Robinson, had earlier told reporters. 

“We want to find out what happened. We want to find out why,” he said.

The surfers were reported missing on April 27, 2024, while camping in Ensenada. 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 found on May 3, 2024.

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.

Ary Gisell Silva, the girlfriend of the witness’s stepfather, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year after admitting she had instigated the robbery in order to steal the pickup’s tires.  

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.”

The crime sparked outrage and grief in Australia and the United States, where the surfers’ friends and families galvanized a major search on social media for their bodies.

Callum Robinson played professional lacrosse in the U.S. His brother Jake Robinson was pursuing a career in medicine. He had traveled to the U.S. to visit his brother and was about to start a job as a doctor upon his return to Australia, CBS News’ partner network BBC News has reported. 

Rhoad was killed a few months before he was set to marry. His fiancée had told the court, “He was my safety in the world. My life is now a nightmare,” the BBC reported. 

Baja California is one of Mexico’s most violent states, plagued by organized crime and drug trafficking, although cartel activity doesn’t usually affect tourists.

Other foreign visitors have, however, been targeted in criminal attacks on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

Two Australian surfers, Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman, were murdered in 2015 while traveling through the northwestern state of Sinaloa. Their bodies were later burned.