"I killed them": Major twist in slain Aussie brothers case
The girlfriend of the man who allegedly killed Perth brothers Callum and Jake Robinson has reportedly "flipped" on her partner, becoming the star witness in the case.
Ari Gisel García Cota was arrested earlier this week, along with her partner Jesús Gerardo Garcia Cota and his brother Cristian Alejandro Garcia, after the bodies of the Robinson brothers and their friend were found on Saturday in a desolate section of Santo Tomas in the Baja California region.
According to Mexico police, the three men were killed as a result of a failed robbery, after locals attempted to steal the tyres from their pick-up truck.
The bodies of the three men were recovered from a 15-metre deep well, with each man having fatal gun shot wounds to the head.
In a major twist to the case, prosecutors revealed to court on Wednesday that Ari Gisel García Cota had become a key witness in the case after turning on the "ringleader" of the crime.
“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, the court heard he allegedly told Ari Gisel, “I f**ked up three gringos (English-speaking foreigner).”
“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, while Ari Gisel García Cota and Cristian Alejandro Garcia have only been charged with drug possession.
Piotrowski said the kidnapping charges may not be upgraded to murder until the next court hearing, although the judge has more questions about how the three men were killed.
“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.”
Image credits: Instagram / State Commission of the Penitentiary System of Baja California