A Mexican woman has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in the killings of Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend, Jack Carter Rhoad, in the country’s north.
The Robinson brothers and Rhoad were on a surfing trip in April last year in Baja California, near Ensenada, when they were shot dead.
Overnight, Ari Gisell, 23, pleaded guilty to instigating the violent assault, according to the BBC.
The court heard Gisell had been seeking the tyres on the group’s vehicle and instructed her then-boyfriend Jesús Gerardo to “bring me a good phone and good tyres for my pickup truck”.
Surnames were withheld during proceedings in accordance with Mexican court rules.
Gerardo and two others, identified as Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús, located the tourists’ vehicle at a campsite, robbed the group, and then shot them.
The cases against the three men remain before the courts.
The parents of the Robinson brothers delivered emotional statements via video link, the ABC reports.
“We dreamed of seeing them grow older, of having children. That’s all taken now,” their mother Debra Robinson said.
“We live with their absence.”
A tearful Gisell apologised in court, saying, “nothing I can say will compensate you or give you peace”.
The deaths of Jake and Callum Robinson, who grew up in Perth, sparked widespread shock across Australia.
In the months following the tragedy, their parents Debra and Martin Robinson established a non-profit charity in their sons’ names to help young people make positive changes in their lives.
Images: 9News
