Prosecutors said the plan was assembled in messages sent within hours of the shooting in Clermont.

TAVARES, Fla. — A Florida woman was sentenced to prison after admitting she helped lure a male friend into a late-night ambush in Clermont, where prosecutors said her boyfriend opened fire on the man’s car after the couple had reconciled only days earlier.

Lake County Circuit Judge Cary F. Rada ordered Arianna Selina Gajraj, 23, to serve 36 months after she pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder with a firearm and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. The sentence closed one phase of a case built on phone records, surveillance video and messages that investigators said showed a plan taking shape in real time. The intended target survived, but the case remains active because the alleged gunman, Brandon Pirela, is still awaiting sentencing.

The violence traced back to the early hours of Dec. 1, 2023, when deputies were called to Peppermill Trail in Clermont after a burst of gunfire. Investigators said the victim had picked up Gajraj around 12:28 a.m. so the two could smoke marijuana and talk about tension involving Pirela. The victim later told detectives he had grown uneasy because Pirela had been sending threatening messages during the week and accusing him of having a relationship with Gajraj. After driving through nearby subdivisions and stopping on Peppermill Trail, the victim said a white Toyota Camry with dark window tint pulled in front of his car. A man stepped out and fired repeatedly. The victim backed away, sped off and later met officers at the Clermont Police Department.

By the time crime scene investigators finished their work, the roadway told its own story. Deputies counted 21 spent 9 mm casings. The victim’s vehicle had 13 projectile strikes, a nearby Massey work truck had three, and a mailbox had one. Investigators later said they recovered three projectiles. The victim told deputies he believed the shooter was Pirela, whom he had met before and whose build he recognized even though the gunman wore dark clothing and a mask. He also said he had seen Pirela post a photo on Instagram with a semiautomatic handgun fitted with an extended magazine. That detail became one piece of a case that moved beyond witness memory and into digital records.

Detectives said those records showed that the alleged plan had shifted over the course of one evening. They traced communications on the Pinger app from the evening of Nov. 30 into the first minutes of Dec. 1 and said the messages began with Gajraj and Pirela airing out problems in their own relationship before turning to the victim. Investigators said the pair first discussed attacking him as he got into a car, then settled on a setup in which Gajraj would meet him, calm his suspicions and share their location. According to the affidavit, one message from Pirela read, “no hes dying,” and detectives said Gajraj later suggested having Pirela call from a blocked number so she could show the victim and gain his trust.

Authorities said the messages, surveillance footage and location data fit together closely in time. Another video showed a vehicle matching Pirela’s at Gajraj’s home at 1:26 a.m., investigators said. Detectives also said Gajraj shared location information shortly before the shooting and that the final message tied to that exchange was sent about 12 minutes before gunfire erupted. Afterward, according to investigators, she called Pirela and asked where he was, but did not explain why she made the call. A license plate reader helped identify a car matching the suspected vehicle, and investigators said it was registered to Pirela. The motive was never fully settled in public court filings, though detectives said the threats pointed to jealousy and suspicion over the victim’s relationship with Gajraj.

The criminal cases then split on separate tracks. Gajraj ultimately pleaded guilty rather than go to trial. Pirela was tried before a jury in January, and jurors found him guilty of attempted murder and conspiracy. Records show he is due back in court April 7 for another hearing tied to sentencing. Gajraj received 602 days of credit for time already served, leaving her with less than a year and a half left on the 36-month sentence announced in March. The contrast in posture matters because prosecutors have already secured convictions against both defendants, but only one of the two final punishments has been imposed.

The case also stood out because the man at the center of the ambush survived what investigators described as a heavy volley of gunfire. No one in the neighborhood was reported struck, even though rounds hit more than one vehicle and a mailbox in a residential area. In court records and news accounts, the episode reads as both intimate and methodical: a private dispute, a reunion between former partners, threats sent online, and then a stop on a dark roadway where the victim said he was boxed in and shot at. That mix of personal grievance and documented planning gave prosecutors a way to argue that the shooting was not sudden but staged.

Pirela’s next scheduled hearing is April 7.

Author note: Last updated April 6, 2026.