Three convicted in 2024 killings of surfers in Mexico

A judge in Ensenada convicted three men on October 9 of killing Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad during a 2024 surfing trip in Baja California. The defendants were also found guilty of robbery and vehicle theft, according to reports of the court’s verdict. The men were identified as Jesús Gerardo García, known as El Kekas, Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús. The judge, Raúl Hernández, ruled after a trial that lasted about a month. The three defendants had been in custody for more than two years. The victims were reported missing in late April 2024 after traveling to a remote coastal area near Punta San José, south of Ensenada. Their bodies were found in a well on May 3, with gunshot wounds, authorities said. The brothers were 30 and 33, and Rhoad was 30, according to several accounts. Testimony by Ary Gisell Silva Raya, a former partner of García who was convicted separately, described the attack. She testified that García approached the surfers’ tent with a handgun and that the men threw their belongings toward him. One of them pleaded for his life, she said.