From the HERE City National Desk
ENSENADA, Mexico — Three men convicted in the 2024 slayings of two Australian brothers and their American friend on a remote Baja California surf trip will each spend 158 years and nine months behind bars, a judge ruled Friday.
The judge handed down the terms in Ensenada one week after finding the defendants guilty of homicide and related crimes. Their surnames were withheld under Mexican law, and the court record lists them by first names: Ángel Jesús, Jesús Gerardo and Irineo Francisco.
Those killed were Australian siblings Jake and Callum Robinson along with their friend Carter Rhoad of the United States, all in their early 30s. They were shot at a clifftop campsite near a lighthouse, about two hours of rough road south of Ensenada, in late April 2024, roughly a day and a half after crossing the border from the United States.
The bulk of each sentence, 135 years, covers the three homicides at 45 years per victim. Added time covers violent robbery and vehicle theft. The judge said the attack on unarmed tourists, at night and in an isolated spot, made the crimes more serious, and that the men had time to reconsider and went ahead anyway.
Baja California prosecutors had sought 210 years for each defendant. Mexico bars life terms, but stacked sentences for multiple major crimes can run well past a lifetime.
The court also ordered the men to pay damages, including 549,550 pesos to the family of Rhoad. Defense lawyers have 10 days to file an appeal and have signaled they will.
State investigators found the three bodies, each with gunshot wounds to the head, dumped in a well on a rural property about a week after the killings. A girlfriend of the alleged ringleader was sentenced last year to 20 years for her role in setting up the robbery.
The brothers’ parents joined the hearing by video from Melbourne and said in a written statement that they were satisfied the men would be kept away from society.
Section: More Washington DC crime news
Filed under: Washington DC Crime News
