Shooting survivor reflects after guilty verdicts in Collier County attempted murder trial

COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. —

Just one day after a jury found Rebecca Gabay and Ryan Toranzo guilty in a 2023 attempted murder plot, shooting survivor Scotty McCandless says he is focused on moving forward.

Inside his swamp buggy shop in the Estates, McCandless is surrounded by what he says matters most: his family, racing heritage and the life he almost lost.

“It might not have physically killed me, but I’m not who I used to be,” McCandless said.

McCandless and Amy Chesser were shot in the head while driving home from the casino in June 2023. McCandless survived two gunshots to the head before the truck crashed and flipped over.

On Tuesday, after a nearly two-week trial, jurors convicted Gabay, McCandless’ ex-wife, and Toranzo, her boyfriend at the time, in the attempted murder plot.

McCandless says the shooting and crash changed every part of his life.

He lost peripheral vision in his left eye, suffers from PTSD, and says he now needs help with simple tasks around the shop.

“I mean, nine out of ten people die in that car wreck without a gunshot,” McCandless said. “We both got out of that car with gunshots and a car wreck. If you tell me that there's not a god and there's no miracles up there... there's got to be a destiny or a plan or something.”

Despite the trauma, McCandless says the verdict brought him peace.

After the trial ended, he said he woke up feeling like a “new person,” someone ready to forgive and focus on what matters most.

McCandless believes the shooting stemmed from a bitter custody battle involving the two children he shares with Gabay.

But he says he does not want to spend the rest of his life consumed by anger.

“Yeah. It makes me sick. So that's why, you know, my number one goal is to protect these kids,” McCandless said. “And that's why the guilty verdict wasn't about punishing anybody, right? I forgive these people. You know, if I live the rest of my life with that hate towards those people, I'm short on myself, right?”

Now, McCandless says he wants to use his story to help others recovering from trauma.

“The second Scotty, we’ll call it Scotty 2.0,” he said. “So Scotty 2.0 is now here.”

McCandless says one day he hopes to become a motivational speaker and believes that if his testimony can help even one person, it would all be worth it.

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