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Three men identified in court only by their first names appeared before a judge in Ensenada on Monday to face charges including aggravated homicide in the deaths of Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad, according to ABC News reporters at the coastal courthouse. Baja California prosecutors requested sentences exceeding 210 years for each defendant with an extra 168 years sought against the alleged leader on additional counts of forced disappearance, the outlet detailed. The judge-only trial is scheduled to hear from dozens of witnesses over the next four weeks after the accused rejected plea offers that would have carried prison terms between 47 and 52 years.
Mexican officials reported that the three victims disappeared in late April 2024 while camping at a remote beach popular with surfers in the violence-hit state of Baja California. Their bodies were recovered several days later from a clifftop shaft with gunshot wounds to the head after an intensive search involving both Mexican and Australian authorities, according to accounts published by The Guardian. Prosecutors have described the attack as a robbery gone wrong that centred on the foreigners’ pickup truck and its tyres.
The victims’ parents travelled from Perth to attend the opening hearings and sat metres from the defendants dressed in orange prison jumpsuits, The Sydney Morning Herald reported from the scene. Martin Robinson told journalists outside the court that the couple felt compelled to represent their sons, stating, “It’s about representing our sons, being here for them. I know they want us to be here. We want to find out what happened. We want to find out why.” Debra Robinson added that the experience was both incredibly important and overwhelmingly difficult, BBC News quoted her as saying.
Court officials moved the defendants to a smaller courtroom on the first day after prosecutors raised concerns that two witnesses had been intimidated by people linked to the accused, RNZ reported. A new judge was appointed at short notice and appeared remotely following an accident involving the original jurist over the weekend, forcing an extension of the overall timetable to four weeks. The first witness called was identified only as Ramón and described as the stepson of one defendant, according to local coverage by Excelsior that tracked the eight-hour session.
One year earlier a woman named Ari Gisell received a 20-year prison term after she pleaded guilty to instigating the robbery that led to the three deaths, a separate BBC News investigation into her sentencing found. Gisell had told her then-boyfriend to obtain a phone and tyres from the victims’ vehicle, according to testimony summarised in that report. The cases against the three men now on trial had continued separately under Mexican rules that withhold full surnames in such proceedings.
Callum Robinson had competed as a member of Australia’s national lacrosse team while living in San Diego and his brother Jake was training toward a career in medicine, profiles compiled by ABC News noted. The killings prompted the creation of the Callum and Jake Robinson Foundation, which issued a statement that the parents were attending not for revenge but to represent the love and heartbreak felt by all who knew the victims. Baja California government security data placed intentional homicides in the state at 1,070 during 2025 even as national figures showed a decline, according to statistics published by the state’s public security secretariat.
The incident formed part of a pattern in which foreign tourists have occasionally been targeted along Mexico’s Pacific coast, The Guardian observed in its coverage of the trial’s start. Australian and United States officials had coordinated with Mexican counterparts throughout the investigation that followed the discovery of the bodies in early May 2024. Further witness testimony including statements from the victims’ father is expected as the case advances through the coming weeks.
