A judge in Ensenada, Baja California, has found three men guilty of murdering Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad, ABC News reported. The verdict was delivered on Friday, Mexico time, and sentencing is set for 16 October.
The three were found guilty of aggravated homicide and several related offences, according to the ABC. The judge ruled that they had acted with premeditation, the Guardian reported. Their full names have been withheld for legal reasons, according to the ABC, and they are not named in this report.
Debra and Martin Robinson travelled from Western Australia and were in court to hear the verdict, the ABC reported. Rhoad’s mother and his fiancée joined the hearing by video link from the US, according to the Guardian.
“While no verdict can ever bring back our boys or ease the heartbreak of losing them, we hope this outcome represents an important step towards justice and accountability,” Mr Robinson said outside court, according to the ABC.
Mrs Robinson spoke after the verdict. “A verdict is a good thing, but it doesn’t bring them back,” she said, the Guardian reported.
Natalie Weirtz, Rhoad’s fiancée, also joined the hearing by video link. “The accused are guilty and must be punished so that no other family suffers the same pain,” she said, according to the Guardian.
Judge Raul Hernandez Arellano offered his condolences and said he was ashamed the murders had happened in his country, the ABC reported.
The three friends were on a surfing trip in Mexico in April 2024 when they were killed. They were killed in an apparent botched robbery of their truck at a secluded beach, and their bodies were found a week later in a well, according to the BBC.
The brothers were both originally from Perth. Jake was a doctor who was due to start a job at a hospital in Geelong, and Callum had moved to the US to play lacrosse, the ABC reported.
The trial began on 7 September, according to the Guardian, and the BBC described it as a month-long trial in Ensenada. During the hearings Mrs Robinson addressed the courtroom and spoke of “the future we had imagined with them”, the BBC reported. Mr Robinson also spoke in court during closing arguments. “It’s hard for a parent to lose a son, and we lost two sons,” he said, according to the BBC.
One other person has already been sentenced over the case. In November 2025, the then girlfriend of the alleged ringleader was sentenced to 20 years after admitting her involvement in the robbery, the BBC reported.
Sentencing on 16 October
The three men are due to be sentenced on 16 October, according to the ABC.
The prosecution requested 210 years’ imprisonment for each man, although the maximum sentence in Baja California is 60 years, the Guardian reported.
A charity, the Callum and Jake Robinson Foundation, has been set up in the brothers’ honour, the ABC reported.
Australian surfers have been killed in Mexico before. In 2015, two Australian surfers, Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman, were killed in the state of Sinaloa, the Guardian reported.
Sources: ABC News, “Three men found guilty of murdering Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson in Mexico”, 10 October 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-10/jake-callum-robinson-mexico-murder-trial-verdict/107231538); The Guardian, “Three men found guilty of murders of Australian surfer brothers and US friend in Mexico”, 10 October 2026 (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/10/jake-callum-robinson-australian-surfers-carter-rhoad-mexico-murder-guilty-verdict-ntwnfb); BBC News, “Three men found guilty of murdering Australian brothers and US friend in Mexico”, 9 October 2026 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj5ynwnye009o)
Image: Isaacmoon, CC BY-SA 3.0, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The coastline near Ensenada in Baja California, photographed in April 2011. Included for location only; it does not show the place where the three surfers died.
