Woman Sentenced to 20 Years for Helping Kill Three Surfers, Tourism Board Calls It “Outlier Event”
In a stunning display of hospitality, Baja California has perfected the ultimate surf trip experience: getting robbed, shot in the head, and thrown down a wellall for the low, low price of your life and truck tires.
Ari Gisell Silva Raya, 23, received a 20-year sentence this week for her role in the April 2024 murders of Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their San Diego friend Carter Rhoad. The trio had traveled to Mexico for what Instagram captions optimistically called “…and it begins”which turned out to be prophetic, if you consider “it” to mean “a carjacking turned execution.”
“We’re calling this our ‘extreme adventure package,'” announced Ensenada Tourism Director Carlos Gravedigger. “Most surf trips only offer waves and tacos. We threw in armed robbery and a 50-foot well burial at no extra charge.”
According to prosecutors, Silva Raya met the surfers, saw their white pickup truck filled with equipment, and told her boyfriend Jesús Gerardo García Cota (nicknamed “El Kekas,” which roughly translates to “definitely not suspicious”) to “bring me a good phone and good tires for my pickup truck.” Romance isn’t dead in Mexicojust visiting surfers.
Between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. on April 27, Cota, his brother Irineo Francisco García Montaño, and accomplice Ángel Jesús León Aguilera allegedly drove to Punta San José, where the campers were sleeping, shot all three in the head, and dumped them in a well. Talk about going the extra mile for customer service.
The well already contained a fourth bodyunrelated to these murdersbecause apparently Baja California wells have become the region’s hottest dumping spot. “Think of it as an underwater cemetery with terrible Yelp reviews,” suggested local coroner Eduardo Morbido.
Silva Raya was sentenced to 14 years for “robbery of a vehicle with violence” and six additional years for regular “robbery with violence”because Mexican courts apparently grade criminal charges like a surf break rating system. She was also fined 54,285 pesos ($4,563), roughly the cost of the medical evacuation insurance the victims should’ve upgraded to “includes-getting-shot” coverage.
“Our hearts are broken beyond repair,” said the victims’ mother Debra Robinson via video link. “The silence in our home is deafening.” Meanwhile, the Baja California Tourism Board released a statement: “At least they got some good waves before dying? Silver linings!”
The three accomplices have pleaded not guilty, which is bold considering the prosecution’s evidence includes “literally everything except a signed confession livestreamed on TikTok.”
SOURCE: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/supposed-dream-surfing-trip-then-171836008.html
SOURCE: Bohiney News