The girlfriend of one of the alleged killers of Perth brothers Callum and Jake Robinson and their American friend on a surfing trip in Mexico has reportedly turned against her boyfriend to become the star witness in the prosecution.
Ari Gisel García Cota was arrested earlier this week with her partner Jesús Gerardo Garcia Cota and his brother Cristian Alejandro Garcia, after bodies of the three friends were found on Saturday in a desolate section of Santo Tomas in the Baja California region.
Mexican police allege Callum, 33, Jake, 30, and Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, were killed in a bungled robbery while they were camping at San Miguel beach, after locals attempted to steal the tyres from their pick-up truck.
Each had a gunshot to the head and were found stuffed down a 15-metre metre well hidden on a cliff.
In a stunning twist, prosecutors revealed to court on Wednesday that the woman had become a key witness in the case.
“She has flipped on the ringleader and the evidence she’s provided to the prosecution will lead this case going forward,” Nine News correspondent Alison Piotrowski, who was in the courtroom, told 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Thursday.
“What’s alleged is that Jesús Gerardo was driving her car that night when he went out to that remote campsite. The prosecution is saying what we’ve been talking about for the last couple of days has potentially happened, that the two Aussies and their American friend were ambushed.”
Prosecutors allege Jesús Gerardo “killed them, took their tyres, put the tyres on her car and drove back”.
When he went back to their house, he allegedly told Ari Gisel, “I f**ked up three gringos.”
“She said to him, ‘What do you mean by that?’ And he told her, ‘I killed them’, and then showed her the vehicle with Jake, Callum and Jack’s tyres on her car,” Piotrowski said.
“Ari was arrested later that day, she had fled to her mother’s house to get away from him. When the officers arrested her they said, ‘You have the right to remain silent’, and she said, ‘I don’t want to be silent, I want to tell you what I know. I’m a victim of domestic violence, I want to protect my four-year-old so let me help you with this case.’ So she has spectacularly turned on him and will now be crucial in this case moving forward.”
Piotrowski added that the stunning revelation explained why Mexican officials “have been able to put him behind bars so quickly and also how they found the bodies”.
“This conversation that he had with his girlfriend is pretty damning,” she said.
So far only Jesús Gerardo Garcia Cota has been charged in connection with the deaths of the three men, and only with forced kidnapping.
Piotrowski said the kidnapping charges may not be upgraded to murder until the next court hearing.
Ari Gisel García Cota and Cristian Alejandro Garcia have only been charged with drug possession.
“The judge did say that he can’t understand how one sole person could have done this, essentially kidnap and kill three men and take their tyres, it seems like too much,” she said.
“He suggested that the prosecution needed to look into more suspects, that they needed to broaden their investigation because it couldn’t have been done by one man alone.”
The court hearing in Mexico came a day after the parents of Callum and Jake gave a heartbreaking statement from San Diego, California.
Martin and Debra Robinson broke down in tears as they spoke of their sons, who vanished on April 27 sparking a frantic search after they failed to show up at the Airbnb they had booked in Rosarito.
“It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that Callum and Jake have been murdered,” Ms Robinson said.
“Our hearts are broken and the world has become a darker place for us. We also mourn the loss of Carter Rhoad, a close friend. They were young men enjoying their passion of surfing together. Now it’s time to bring them home to family and friends — and the ocean waves in Australia. Please live bigger, shine brighter and love harder in their memory.”
She said thanked those who had offered their condolences and said they had been “overwhelmed with the outpouring of emotions and support”.
“We have always been very proud of their academic and sporting achievements and admired their life choices as,” she said.
She spoke of Callum’s “larger than life character” and his sporting achievement, playing professional lacrosse in America.
She described Jake as a “happy, gentle and compassionate soul” who was pursuing a career in medicine.
“Jake’s passion was surfing and it was no coincidence that many of his hospitals that he worked in were close to a surfing beaches,” she said.
Their comments came after the parents visited the morgue in Ensenada, Mexico, to identify their sons’ bodies on Sunday.
Instagram posts shared by Callum days before the trio vanished showed them relaxing at Rosarito Beach, where they had been surfing and camping.
His final post showed an image of San Miguel beach in Ensenada.
Another picture showed their white Chevrolet Colorado pick-up truck at a beach in Rosarito, which police believe was the same vehicle later discovered burnt out.
Jake, a Perth-based doctor, had flown to the US two weeks earlier to visit his brother, who was living in San Diego with his girlfriend Emily Horwath to follow his dream of becoming a professional lacrosse player.
On Tuesday, Ms Horwath shared a voicemail from Callum on Instagram with the caption, “Will be playing this on repeat.”
In the message, Callum says, “Happy Tuesday, good morning! It’s 11.11 and I’m just thinking about you. Just wanted to drop you a quick message and say, hello baby, hope you’re having a phenomenal start to your day. I’m sensing a big grin on your face for some reason today. I hope you’re full of positivity and smiles. Cheers baby, miss you.”
In an earlier post Ms Horwath said her heart was “shattered into a million pieces”.
Mr Rhoad, a recruitment worker from San Diego, was due to marry his fiancee Natalie Wiertz in just a few months after he proposed in the middle of last year.
— with NCA NewsWire