The last of the three people charged in the 2023 Immokalee Road ambush that left a Collier couple shot in the head has been sentenced, and the State Attorney says the man who testified against the other two drew 13 years for accessory after the fact

The last of the three people charged in the 2023 ambush shooting on Immokalee Road has been sentenced, and unlike the two who went to trial he was not convicted of attempted murder.

The Office of the State Attorney for the Twentieth Judicial Circuit said on August 21 that Julian Wolf was adjudicated guilty of two counts of accessory after the fact and sentenced to 13 years in prison, followed by 15 years of probation, for his involvement in an attempted first degree murder case in Collier County.

Gulf Coast News, which reported the sentence first, says Wolf entered the plea and was sentenced on Thursday, August 20. The State Attorney's release does not give a hearing date.

Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Brown and Deputy Chief Assistant State Attorney John Dommerich Jr. prosecuted the case. The Collier County Sheriff's Office investigated it.

Why his sentence is different from the other two

Wolf testified at trial against his co-defendants, and the State Attorney's Office says so in the first line of its account of him.

In June, the office says, Ryan Guy Toranzo was sentenced to life in prison and Rebecca Zeldi Gabay was sentenced to 30 years for the 2023 shooting of two people.

Accessory after the fact is a separate offence from the shooting itself. It is not a finding that Wolf fired, and this brief does not report it as one. What the court adjudicated him guilty of, twice over, is conduct after the crime.

What Wolf testified happened

What follows is the State Attorney's summary of Wolf's own testimony from the witness stand. It is his account, given against his co-defendants, and not a separate finding by this desk.

He testified that he was in a van along with Toranzo. He said they were at Gabay's home and that Toranzo then drove to a casino in Immokalee. They switched places, and Wolf became the driver. A short while later, he testified, the victims came out to their truck and drove off, Wolf followed, pulled up on them on Immokalee Road, and Toranzo started shooting.

The truck the victims were in was riddled with bullets, according to the release. The woman who was driving was shot in the head, which caused her to crash and flip the truck. Her boyfriend was also shot in the head. Both survived, both required extensive medical treatment, and both suffered what the office calls life altering injuries.

The custody dispute the state puts at the centre of it

The State Attorney's Office says there had been an ongoing child custody dispute between the male victim and his ex-wife, and that the victim was scheduled to start receiving more time with his children in just days when the shooting occurred.

Who the survivors are

The State Attorney's release does not name either victim. Gulf Coast News identifies them as Scott McCandless and Amy Chesser and dates the attack to June 1, 2023, and the outlet interviewed McCandless after the sentencing. Earlier local coverage of the June sentencings of Toranzo and Gabay named the same two people.

Speaking to Gulf Coast News about Wolf's decision to testify, McCandless said:

I'm glad Julian actually stepped up to the plate and did what he needed to do and told the truth.

What is behind this brief

The document. The State Attorney's Office for the Twentieth Judicial Circuit published its own account of the sentence on August 21, and everything reported here about the charge, the sentence, the probation term, the prosecutors and Wolf's testimony comes from that release, read directly by this desk. No judgment, plea colloquy or docket entry was read.

Where the outlet and the document disagree, the document is used. Gulf Coast News describes Wolf as the final defendant sentenced in an attempted murder case, which is loose, because the release is explicit that the counts he was adjudicated guilty of are accessory after the fact. The outlet also reports the sentence as 13 years with credit for three years already served and does not mention probation; the release states 13 years followed by 15 years of probation and says nothing about credit for time served. This brief carries the release's figures.

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