Photo: West Australian
A Mexican woman has been handed a 20-year prison sentence for her part in the killing of three tourists during a carjacking last year, according to the BBC.
Ari Gisell, aged 23, admitted that she set in motion the violent attack on Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad. The trio had vanished while on a surfing trip in Baja California in April 2024.
Their bodies were later found at the bottom of a deep well with gunshot wounds to the head.
The court heard that Gisell had taken an interest in the tyres on the tourists’ vehicle and told her then boyfriend, Jesus Gerardo, to «bring me a good phone and good tyres for my pickup truck». In line with Mexican reporting rules, the defendants’ surnames have not been published.
Gerardo, along with Irineo Francisco and Angel Jesus, followed the tourists to their campsite, robbed them and then shot them dead. Proceedings against the three men are still ongoing.
Mexican outlet La Silla Rota reported that Gerardo and Francisco have links to the Sinaloa cartel, once led by Joaquin «El Chapo» Guzman. Due to these alleged connections both men are being held in El Hongo, a maximum-security facility in Baja California, while Angel Jesus is detained in a separate prison in Ensenada.
Prosecutors do not believe the murders were tied to organised crime, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Victims’ backgrounds
Relatives of the victims, who addressed the court by video link, gave moving statements during the hearing.
«We dreamed of seeing them grow older of having children. That is all gone now,» said Debra Robinson, the mother of Callum and Jake. «We live with their absence.»
Callum Robinson, aged 33, played for Australia’s national lacrosse team and lived in San Diego, close to the US-Mexico border. His younger brother Jake, aged 30, had travelled from Australia to visit him and had been due to start work as a doctor on his return home.
Rhoad, also aged 30, lived in San Diego and worked for a technology services firm. He had been months away from marrying his fiancee.
«He was my safety in the world,» his fiancee Natalie Wiertz told the court. «My life is now a nightmare.»
Gisell offered a tearful apology, saying that «nothing I can say will compensate you or give you peace». The single mother said she was committed to becoming a better person and expressed deep regret for the families’ loss.
