Jesús Gerardo García
Introduction
Jesús Gerardo García, a Mexican man known by the alias “El Kekas,” was convicted on Friday, October 9, 2026 of the April 2024 murders of Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson and their American friend Carter Redd Rhoad, three surfers killed while on a camping trip on the Pacific coast of Baja California. After a month-long trial in the coastal city of Ensenada, Judge Raúl Hernández found García and two co-defendants, Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús, guilty of the murders and of armed robbery and armed carjacking, ruling that the three men had acted with premeditation. García was identified at trial as the man who shot the three travelers when they resisted a robbery. His sentencing, along with his co-defendants’, is set for October 16, 2026, with prosecutors seeking a 210-year sentence for each man.
The New York Post announced the verdict to its followers hours after the ruling: “3 Mexican men found guilty of killing Australian brothers, US pal on surfing trip.”
Background Information
The Robinson brothers — Jake, 30, a doctor who was due to start a job at a Geelong hospital, and Callum, 33, a talented lacrosse player who had moved to the United States to pursue the sport — traveled from Western Australia to California, where Jake visited Callum before the pair drove south into Mexico with Rhoad, a 30-year-old American friend. The three arrived in the remote beachside area of Punta San Jose, roughly 50 miles from Ensenada, in late April 2024 and were reported missing shortly afterward. On May 3, 2024, their bodies were found in a clifftop well near their white pickup truck, which had been badly burned; each man had been shot in the head. Australian media reported during the trial that García had a reputation as a violent hit man with a list of targets, and court documents linked co-defendant Irineo Francisco to the Sinaloa cartel. Australian coverage withheld the surnames of the three defendants for legal reasons; García’s full name and alias were published in US court coverage.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted. On October 9, 2026, Judge Raúl Hernández of Ensenada found Jesús Gerardo García, Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús guilty of the aggravated homicides of Callum Robinson, Jake Robinson and Carter Rhoad, and of armed robbery and armed carjacking, ruling the killings premeditated. Sentencing is set for October 16, 2026; the Baja California Attorney General’s Office is seeking a 210-year “exemplary sentence” for each man, though Australian reporting notes the statutory maximum in Baja California is 60 years.
Prosecutors laid out a robbery that turned into a triple murder. According to the testimony of Ary Gisell Silva Raya, García’s ex-girlfriend, García approached the travelers’ tent armed with a 9mm pistol on April 28, 2024; the men threw their belongings at him in an attempt to fend off the attack, handed over their car keys and wallets, and one of them begged for his life, which the assailant ignored. Silva Raya told the trial that García later described to her how he killed the men and joked about how they cried. According to Baja California Attorney General María Elena Andrade Ramírez, García allegedly tried to steal tires and other parts from the surfers’ pickup truck, and prosecutors believe he shot the men when they resisted and later concealed their bodies in the well.
Silva Raya, who arrived in Punta San Jose on April 27, 2024 and, per the state prosecutor’s office, “instigated one of her companions to rob them,” was found in possession of one of the victims’ cellphones. She pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery with violence and vehicle theft with violence in an expedited proceeding and was sentenced in November 2025 to 20 years in prison. García, Francisco and Ángel Jesús chose to go to trial instead; all three were arrested in May 2024 and had been in custody for more than two years when the verdict came. The defense argued there was not enough evidence to prove the case, but Judge Hernández found several witnesses — including Silva Raya — had given credible and consistent evidence.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The verdict closed a case that had drawn sustained attention in Australia and the United States. Martin and Debra Robinson, the brothers’ parents, traveled from Australia and were in the Ensenada courtroom, where Debra testified on the trial’s final day: “They took our sons from our lives forever. What hurts us most is that, in their final hours, they were treated with such cruelty.” Outside court, Martin Robinson called the guilty verdict “a significant moment in our long and painful journey to seek justice,” while adding that “no outcome can ever undo this tragedy.” Debra Robinson said she and her family deliberately refuse the men notoriety: “We don’t actually really speak their names.” Rhoad’s mother, Page, and his fiancée, Natalie Weirtz, joined the hearing by video from the United States, where Weirtz said, “The accused are guilty and must be punished so that no other family suffers the same pain. Since Carter’s death, I feel paranoid and isolated.” Judge Hernández conveyed his condolences to the family and said he was ashamed the murders had taken place in his country. A charity, the Callum and Jake Robinson Foundation, has been established in the brothers’ honor.
Current Status
As of the latest reporting, García, Francisco and Ángel Jesús remain in custody pending sentencing on October 16, 2026. The Baja California State Attorney General’s Office has requested the “exemplary sentence” of 210 years for each defendant; Attorney General Andrade Ramírez, who described the killings as “cowardly,” said her office would continue working with Australian and US representatives ahead of the hearing. The convictions for the murders, armed robbery and armed carjacking are final as to guilt; only the sentences remain to be imposed. Co-defendant Silva Raya is already serving her 20-year term.
Impact on Their Career/Life
At whatever sentence Hernández imposes on October 16, García — described at trial as a violent hit man — will spend the rest of his working life in prison; even the statutory maximum of 60 years would keep him incarcerated into his eighties, and prosecutors are pressing for more than triple that figure. The case has also become part of a darker pattern for foreign surfers on Mexico’s Pacific coast, recalling the 2015 killing of Australian travelers Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman in Sinaloa, and it leaves the Robinson and Rhoad families with convictions but no recovery: as Debra Robinson told the court, “A verdict is a good thing, but it doesn’t bring them back.”
Sources
- New York Post, “3 Mexican men found guilty of killing Australian brothers, US pal on surfing trip,” Oct. 10, 2026 — source
- The Guardian, “Three men found guilty of murders of Australian surfer brothers Jake and Callum Robinson in Mexico,” Oct. 10, 2026 — source
- ABC News (Australia), “Three men found guilty of murdering Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson in Mexico,” Oct. 10, 2026 — source
- CBS News, “3 men found guilty of killing American and Australian surfers in Mexico,” Oct. 10, 2026 — source
- @nypost on X, “3 Mexican men found guilty of killing Australian brothers, US pal on surfing trip,” Oct. 11, 2026 — source