Three Mexican men were found guilty Friday of murdering American Carter Redd Rhoad and Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson during a 2024 surfing trip in Baja California—another reminder that the chaos south of the border doesn't stay south of the border.
Rhoad, 30, was camping with his friends in Punta San Jose when Jesús Gerardo García, alias "El Kekas," walked up to their tent with a 9mm pistol. The surfers threw their belongings at him, and one begged for his life. García ignored the plea and opened fire. All three were shot in the head. Their bodies were dumped in a clifftop shaft and weren't found for days.
Judge Raúl Hernández ruled that García and accomplices Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús acted with premeditation—though you wouldn't know that from CNN or CBS, which both omitted the premeditation finding from their reports. All three outlets covered the verdict, but only The Guardian noted the judge's ruling on premeditation and the grim detail that the victims suffered gunshot wounds to the head.
The Guardian also added crucial context the American outlets buried: Baja California is "one of Mexico's most violent states, plagued by organised crime and drug trafficking." Then, in classic institutional-press fashion, The Guardian immediately qualified it: "cartel activity does not usually affect tourists." Tell that to the families of Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman, two Australian surfers killed on Mexico's Pacific coast in 2015—a fact only The Guardian saw fit to mention.
Ary Gisell Silva Raya, García's then-girlfriend, instigated the robbery after meeting the three men at the beach. She was caught with one of the victims' phones and was sentenced to 20 years in November 2025. The three killers chose trial instead. Prosecutors requested 210 years each. The maximum sentence in Baja California is 60 years. Sentencing is set for October 16.
Debra Robinson, the Australian brothers' mother, told the court: "What hurts us most is that, in their final hours, they were treated with such cruelty." Rhoad's fiancée, Natalie Weirtz, joined by video from the United States: "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."
The same cartels that turned Baja California into a killing field are the ones pumping fentanyl across our open border. The same corruption that lets gunmen rob and murder tourists with premeditation is the corruption Washington pretends is a partner's problem. Three men got convicted. American communities are still paying the price.
