Woman jailed for 20 years over murder of Australian surfer brothers

A 23-year-old woman, Ari Gisell, has been sentenced to two decades in prison for her involvement in the tragic murders of three tourists during a carjacking in Mexico last year. The victims, Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad, were on a surfing trip in Baja California in April 2024 when they were brutally killed. Their bodies were discovered with gunshot wounds to the head in a deep well. Gisell pleaded guilty to instigating the violent assault, which was reportedly motivated by her desire for the tyres on the surfers’ vehicle. She instructed her then-boyfriend, Jesús Gerardo, to ‘bring me a good phone and good tyres for my pickup truck,’ according to court testimonies. Jesús Gerardo, along with two other accomplices, Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús, followed the tourists to their campsite, robbed them, and executed them. The cases against these three men remain ongoing. Jesús Gerardo and Irineo Francisco are allegedly linked to the Sinaloa drug cartel, once led by the infamous Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, and are currently held in maximum-security prisons. The victims’ families, appearing via video conference, expressed profound grief during the hearing. Callum and Jake’s mother, Debra Robinson, lamented, ‘We dreamed of seeing them grow older, of having children. That’s all taken now.’ Callum, 33, was a member of Australia’s national lacrosse team, while Jake, 30, was set to begin a new job as a doctor upon his return. Carter Rhoad, 30, was months away from marrying his fiancée, Natalie Wiertz, who described her life as ‘a nightmare’ since his death. Gisell offered a tearful apology in court, acknowledging that ‘nothing I can say will compensate you or give you peace.’