In a courtroom in Mexico, the fathers and mothers of three young men — two Australian brothers and an American friend — have begun the painful work of bearing witness to what was lost when their sons were killed during an alleged robbery on a surfing trip in April 2024. The trial of three accused men in Ensenada draws together grief from two nations, asking a court to weigh human lives against the circumstances of a burned truck and a cliff-side shaft. It is a proceeding that reminds us how swiftly ordinary joy — a wave, a road trip, a shared friendship — can be overtaken by violence, and how
Father testifies in Mexico trial over sons' deaths in surfing trip killing
Three men—Australian brothers Jake (30) and Callum Robinson (33) and American Jack Carter Rhoad (30)—were killed by gunshot wounds to the head during an attempted robbery in Mexico.
It's hard for a parent to lose a son, and we lost two.
Mark
Why does a trial like this get so much attention? Three people die in a robbery gone wrong—it happens, tragically, in many places.
Mimi
It does. But these were young men from Australia and America, on a leisure trip, killed in a way that felt execution-style. The social media search, the international dimension—that amplified it. And the fact that a witness was threatened into silence suggests something beyond a simple robbery.
Luke
We should be careful there. We know a witness says they were threatened. We don't know yet what the actual motive was or whether it was truly just a truck theft. The prosecution's theory is one account.
Mimi
Fair. But the father's testimony—that's not theory. That's a man identifying his sons' bodies and trying to make sense of it in court.
Mark
What does it mean that he said he holds no resentment? That's unusual.
Mimi
It could mean many things. Forgiveness, exhaustion, faith. Or it could be a way of saying: I'm not here for revenge, I'm here for truth and justice through the system.
Luke
It's also worth noting we don't have the defendants' side yet. We have family testimony, a protected witness, the prosecution's framing. The trial continues through September.
Mark
So we're still in the early stages of hearing the full story.
Luke
Exactly. The narrative will shift as more evidence comes in.
Mimi
But what won't shift is that three people are dead and two families are broken.
Mark
No. That part is fixed.
The Pulse
- Three young men went to Mexico to surf and never returned — shot and hidden in a cliff shaft while their truck was stolen and burned nearby.
- Their families now sit in a foreign courtroom, translating unbearable loss into legal testimony, one identification, one tattoo, one missed dream at a time.
- A protected witness has already described fleeing the scene after hearing gunshots and being threatened into silence, suggesting the violence rippled outward well beyond the night of the killings.
- The victims' father offered something rare from the stand — not rage, but a bewildered forgiveness, saying he holds no resentment yet cannot comprehend how anyone could take two beautiful lives.
- With the widow of one victim still to testify and the trial running through late September, the court is only beginning to assemble the full weight of what three families lost over a pickup truck.
In a courtroom in Mexico, the fathers and mothers of three young men — two Australian brothers and an American friend — have begun the painful work of bearing witness to what was lost when their sons were killed during an alleged robbery on a surfing trip in April 2024. The trial of three accused men in Ensenada draws together grief from two nations, asking a court to weigh human lives against the circumstances of a burned truck and a cliff-side shaft. It is a proceeding that reminds us how swiftly ordinary joy — a wave, a road trip, a shared friendship — can be overtaken by violence, and how long the reckoning that follows can take.
Martin Robinson sat before a Mexican judge on Tuesday and said plainly that his life had become hell. In April 2024, his sons Jake and Callum had traveled to Ensenada on the Pacific coast with their American friend Jack Carter Rhoad for a surfing trip. All three were in their early thirties. None of them came home. Three men now stand accused of their murders.
Prosecutors say the surfers were killed during an attempted robbery of their pickup truck. Their bodies were found in a shaft cut into a cliff face, each killed by a gunshot wound to the head. The truck was discovered burned nearby. On the trial's second day, the families took the stand.
Martin Robinson spoke with the precision of someone who has lived inside grief for over a year. He described identifying his sons — Callum by a tattoo on his forearm, Jake through photographs — and the futures that would never unfold: the places unvisited, the love extended to others that would now go unreturned. Yet he also offered something unexpected. "We hold no resentment toward the people who did this," he said, "but we cannot understand how they could have taken the lives of two beautiful people."
Jack Carter Rhoad's mother testified that her son had genuinely loved Mexico — he spoke Spanish, danced, embraced the culture. She called what happened an execution. "I miss my son every day," she said, "and I don't know if I will ever regain my balance."
The court has also heard from a protected witness who said they accompanied one of the defendants to the scene, fled after gunshots, and were later threatened into silence — a detail that extends the violence beyond a single night. The disappearances had set off alarm across Australia and the United States, with social media searches spanning both countries before the bodies were found.
Rhoad's widow is scheduled to testify Wednesday. The trial continues through the end of September, with more witnesses still to come, all of them building toward a judgment on three men accused of killing three young men over a truck.
Martin Robinson sat in a Mexican courtroom on Tuesday and told the judge that his life had become hell. Two years earlier, in April 2024, his sons Jake and Callum had driven to Ensenada on Mexico's Pacific coast for a surfing trip with their American friend Jack Carter Rhoad. All three men were 30 or 33 years old. They never came home. Three men now stand trial for their deaths.
The prosecution's account is stark: the three surfers were killed during an attempted robbery of their pickup truck. Their bodies were found dumped in a shaft carved into a cliff face, each bearing a gunshot wound to the head. The truck itself was discovered burned nearby. On the second day of the trial, the men's families began testifying about what those deaths had taken from them.
Martin Robinson described the mechanics of grief with the precision of someone who has lived it. "It's hard for a parent to lose a son, and we lost two." He spoke of identifying his sons' remains—Callum through a tattoo on his forearm, Jake through photographs, a process he did not elaborate on but did not need to. He told the court about the potential his sons would never realize, the dreams they carried, the places they would never travel to, the love they had extended to others that would now go unreturned.
Yet Robinson also said something that seemed to come from a place beyond anger: "We hold no resentment toward the people who did this, but we cannot understand how they could have taken the lives of two beautiful people." It was a statement that held both forgiveness and incomprehension in the same breath.
Page, Jack Carter Rhoad's mother, testified that her son had loved Mexico with genuine affection. He spoke Spanish fluently, danced, savored the food and the people. She compared what happened to an execution. "I miss my son every day," she said, "and I don't know if I will ever be able to regain my balance."
The trial has already heard from a protected witness who testified Monday that they had accompanied one of the defendants to the crime scene, fled after hearing gunshots, and were later threatened into silence—a detail that suggests the violence extended beyond the initial killings into a campaign of intimidation. The disappearances of the three men in April 2024 had triggered widespread alarm in Australia and the United States, with social media searches mobilizing across both countries before their bodies were found.
Rhoad's widow, Natalie, is scheduled to testify on Wednesday. The trial is expected to continue through the end of September, with more family members and witnesses still to come. What emerges from these testimonies will form the evidentiary foundation for the court's judgment on three men accused of killing three young men over a truck.
Notable Quotes
It's hard for a parent to lose a son, and we lost two. It's not just the loss, but also the potential they had, the dreams that lay ahead of them.— Martin Robinson, father of the victims
I miss my son every day, and I don't know if I will ever be able to regain my balance.— Page, mother of Jack Carter Rhoad
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Crime & Justice