Carson Zorn
•6/29/2026
Sentences have been handed down on Monday for two people who were involved in an attempted murder plot in the 2023 shooting of Scotty McCandless and Amy Chesser.
Ryan Toranzo has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty in May on two counts of attempted first-degree premeditated murder as well as shooting at/within or into a dwelling/building.
Rebecca Gabay, McCandless' ex-wife, has been sentenced to 30 years after she was found guilty in May on two counts of accessory after the fact for the attack along Immokalee Road on June 1, 2023.
Toranzo and Gabay were sentenced for their roles in a shooting that took place on June 1, 2023.
Prosecutors said that Toranzo shot into a truck where McCandless and Chesser, who was dating McCandless, were passengers. Prosecutors were able to connect Toranzo to the crime due to cell phone data tied to co-defendant Julian Wolf, who testified against Toranzo and Gabay as part of a plea deal.
During the trial, Wolf told jurors he and Toranzo left Pure Audio, a business owned by Gabay, in a white van on the night of the shooting. He said Toranzo told him they were taking a client's van out for a drive to test a new stereo system.
Wolf said that the pair first stopped at Gabay's house, then drove to the parking lot of Seminole Casino Hotel Immokalee, where McCandless and Chesser were on a date night. Toranzo and Wolf then began to follow the couple as they were leaving the casino.
"The window went down, and Ryan started shooting at the truck," Wolf told jurors. Wolf said he did not fire a gun and was shocked in the moments following the shooting.
Wolf told jurors he and Toranzo returned to Gabay's business after the shooting, changed clothes and wiped down the van to clear it of any evidence.
Wolf maintained he did not know where they were going that night or what Toranzo was planning.
Almost a year after the shooting, deputies arrested Gabay and charged her with being an accessory after the fact.
Prosecutors established a clear motive for the shooting, an ongoing custody dispute involving Gabay. The shooting occurred just two days before McCandless was set to receive more parenting time with the couple's two sons.
McCandless told jurors during the trial that he and Chesser were heading home from a date night, driving a truck, when gunfire suddenly erupted. McCandless said he was hit below his left eye and then hit again in the back of the head before their truck crashed and flipped over.
Chesser was struck in the head with a bullet that will never be able to be removed, she said during the trial. Chesser said she suffered strokes, partial paralysis, memory issues and had to relearn how to walk, talk and care for herself.
Gulf Coast News spoke exclusively to McCandless following the guilty verdicts of Toranzo and Gabay in May. He told us that after the trial ended, he woke up feeling like a "new person," someone ready to forgive and focus on what matters most.
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