A woman has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in the murders of three tourists during a carjacking in Mexico last year.
Ari Gisell, 23, pleaded guilty to instigating the violent assault on Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad, who were on a surfing trip in the northern Mexican state of Baja California in April 2024 when they disappeared.
Their bodies were later found with gunshot wounds to the head at the bottom of a deep well.
Ari Gisell had expressed interest in the tyres on the surfers’ car and told her then-boyfriend Jesús Gerardo to “bring me a good phone and good tyres for my pickup truck”, the court heard.
The surnames of the defendants are not being revealed in the court, in line with Mexican court reporting rules.
Jesús Gerardo and two others, Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús, tailed the vehicle to the campsite where the foreigners were staying, then robbed them before shooting them dead. The cases against these three men are still before the courts.
According to Mexican newspaper La Silla Rota, Jesús Gerardo and Irineo Francisco have ties with the powerful drug cartel Sinaloa, which was for many years led by the notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Because of these links, both men are being held in El Hongo, a maximum-security prison in Baja California. Ángel Jesús has been detained in a separate facility in the city of Ensenada.
Prosecutors do not suspect any connections between the murders and organised crime, however, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
The victims’ families, who appeared via video conference, made emotional statements at the hearing on Wednesday.
“We dreamed of seeing them grow older, of having children. That’s all taken now,” said Callum and Jake’s mother Debra Robinson, as reported by ABC.
“We live with their absence.”
Callum Robinson, 33, was a member of Australia’s national lacrosse team and was living in San Diego, just across the US-Mexico border from Baja California.
His younger brother Jake, 30, lived in Australia and had travelled to North America to visit Callum. He was due to start a new job as a doctor when he returned.
Their friend Rhoad, 30, was a San Diego resident and worked in a technology services company. Rhoad was months away from marrying his fiancee when he was killed.
“He was my safety in the world,” his fiancee Natalie Wiertz told the court. “My life is now a nightmare.”
Ari Gisell gave a tearful apology in court, acknowledging that “nothing I can say will compensate you or give you peace”.
“I am focused on being a better person, and I am very sorry for your losses,” said the single mother, as quoted by La Silla Rota.
