Ex-wife of Immokalee Road shooting victim arrested

Author: AMY GALO Writer: Paul Dolan
Published: Updated:
Victims in the Immokalee shooting. CREDIT: WINK News

Two more arrests were made concerning a double shooting on Immokalee Road near Twin Eagles Boulevard on June 1, and one was the victim’s ex-wife.

According to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, Scotty McCandless was driving with his girlfriend Amy Chesser near Twin Eagles Blvd. when they were shot at, leading to them crashing.

CCSO announced on Thursday two people in New Jersey were arrested after working in tandem with the US Marshall Taskforce and New Jersey State Police.

They’re both being transported back to Collier County, where they’ll face an assortment of charges.

Rebecca Gabay, the ex-wife of McCandless, was arrested for interfering with a custody agreement. McCandless told deputies that Gabay threatened to have him killed before he got custody of their children. She faces two third-degree felony charges related to the June 1 incident, but not the shooting itself, detectives note.

Ryan Toranzo, Gabay’s current boyfriend, was also arrested and faces two charges of attempted first-degree murder. Toranzo also faces one count of shooting into an occupied vehicle.

Collier County deputies also arrested Julian Mendes-Wolf for the double attempted murder shortly after the shooting.

“I think the police have a very good case to go after the ex-wife and her boyfriend,” said Walter Zelisko, private investigator.

It turns out that the shooting might have been a murder plot by Gabay and Toranzo.

According to the affidavit, McCandless said he was in fear in the days leading up to the incident. He told officers his ex-wife “hated him” and threatened to kill him.

“The arrests don’t always come as quickly as you would like them to,” Zelisko said. “You don’t want to present your your investigation to the state attorney and the state attorney come back and saying, ‘I don’t think we have enough information here to charge.'”

WINK News spoke with a family friend of the two victims, Reece Gardner. He said the couple still has a long road to recovery. While McCandless has dramatically improved, Chesser is still struggling because her bullet might be considerably more challenging to remove.

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