A man accused of fatally shooting two Australian brothers and their friend allegedly joked about the trio begging for their lives before he killed them.
Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33, and their American friend, Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, were enjoying a surfing trip on Mexico’s Pacific coast when they were shot dead in April 2024.
Each was found with a gunshot wound to the head when their bodies were discovered at the bottom of a well.
Jesús Gerardo, Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús were arrested and charged with aggravated homicide, with prosecutors alleging they wanted to steal the phones and car tyres from the victims.
On Monday, Gerardo’s former girlfriend, Ari Gisell, 23, gave evidence, alleging that the men joked about the murders.
Gisell is currently serving 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to instigating the robbery that allegedly led to the killings.
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Giving evidence, she said she met the Robinson brothers in Punta San José after her then-boyfriend instructed her to ask them for fuel.
She claims she told Gerardo that they had ‘good tyres and good phones,’ but said she was not encouraging him to rob the men.
She went on to say that Gerardo later went to his mother’s house before returning to the beach with his stepson, who allegedly took a set of clothes with him to disguise his identity.
Gisell told the court: ‘Gerardo told me that he had shot one of them with a gun when they opened the tent door.’
She claims that when Gerardo and his stepson returned to his mother’s home in the trio’s vehicle, it had blood splattered inside, while Gerardo had three phones in his pocked and two chain necklaces.
Gisell alleged that Gerardo mocked his stepson for being too scared to take part in the murders, as well as joking that the victims cried and pleaded for their lives.
The bodies of the Australian brothers and their American friend were found in a four-metre-deep well 159 miles south of the tourist town of Ensenada, where they had been camping.
A burnt-out white pickup truck, tents, and a phone linked with the surfers were also found four miles from where the bodies were discovered.
Their parents, Debra and Martin Robinson, said in a statement last week to ABC that the trial was ‘incredibly important and overwhelmingly difficult.’
‘We want the men accused of murdering our sons to see, in person, the human consequences of what happened,’ they said.
‘Callum and Jake were not simply victims in a case file – they were our sons, deeply loved by their family and friends, with lives, dreams and futures that were brutally taken away.’
The trial continues.