Man accused of killing Australian surfers was an assassin, witness tells Mexican murder trialBy Cason Ho in Washington DC and Aline Corpus in Ensenada, Mexico
Posted Tue 15 Sep 2026 at 10:54amTue 15 Sep 2026 at 10:54amTue 15 Sep 2026 at 10:54am
In short:
The ex-girlfriend of one of the men accused of killing Jake and Callum Robinson and Carter Rhoad in Mexico has given new evidence in a murder trial.
Ari Gisell said one of the accused, Jesús Gerardo, was an assassin who had boasted about killing the foreigners.
What’s next?
Three Mexican men are currently on trial on charges of aggravated homicide, aggravated burglary, violent robbery and grand theft auto.
One of the men accused of killing Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend in Mexico was an assassin with a list of targets, a court has heard.
The Perth brothers were on a surfing trip in Baja California with Carter Rhoad in April 2024, when the men went missing and were later found dead.
Three Mexican men, Jesús Gerardo, Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús, are facing aggravated homicide charges over the deaths.
Ari Gisell, 23, who was last year convicted of instigating a robbery that ultimately led to the alleged murders, testified in the murder trial in Ensenada on Monday local time.
Gisell is the former girlfriend of Jesús Gerardo, who is also known as El Kekas.
She told the court Jesús Gerardo described to her how he killed the men and joked about how they cried.
He said one of them pleaded, “please don’t kill me because I have a wife”, Gisell told the court.
Jesús Gerardo was a hit man who always carried a gun with him and had a list of people who he planned to kill, Gisell told the court.
She had testified in an earlier hearing in 2024 that Jesús Gerardo confessed to the killings, telling the court at the time he said, “I f***ed up three gringos … I killed them.”
‘They had good tyres’
In her testimony on Monday, Gisell told the court details that had never been publicised about the day the Robinson brothers and Carter Rhoad were killed.
She said she previously could not remember many of the details because of her drug use, but has since been sober for more than two years in prison.
Gisell told the court they first met the Robinson brothers and Carter Rhoad at Punta San José, a remote surfing location where the tourists were camping.
The court heard Jesús Gerardo told her to ask the men for fuel because their car was empty.
Gisell described the tourists as very “kind” and “friendly”, and said they offered to share their fuel.
“I told El Kekas they had good tyres, and good phones,” she said, but told the court she was not encouraging him to rob the men.
Gisell said she and Jesús Gerardo left the beach and returned to his mother’s home, but he and his stepson later went back to the beach.
She told the court the stepson took a shirt to wrap around his face to hide his identity because “it was going to be his first job”.
Jesús Gerardo and the stepson later returned in the tourists’ car, which Gisell said was splattered with blood.
She said when Jesús Gerardo came back he had three phones in his pocket, two chain necklaces, and his boots were covered in blood.
Witness says suspect boasted about killings
Gisell told the court she did not ask Jesús Gerardo any questions about the incident because she was afraid of him due to his reputation as a hit man, and because he was violent.
She later found out about the two other accused killers’ involvement when Jesús Gerardo was boasting about how he killed the three foreigners, she told the court.
Gisell also said the Robinson brothers and Carter Rhoad were good people who deserved justice, and she empathised with their parents as a mother herself.
The trial was initially expected to take four weeks, but is now expected to take longer due to a sudden change in the presiding judge, and scheduling issues.