PLANO, Texas – A Plano man will spend the next 40 years in prison for a road rage shooting that nearly killed an Uber driver.
The shooting happened in March of 2023, shortly after Guillermo Martinez had dropped off a passenger in Plano.
The Uber driver was at the intersection of West Parker Road and Rainer Road when he was shot multiple times.
“The guy shot me six times. I got six shots in me. I got my phone, and I called 911,” Martinez recalled for a FOX 4 interview in June.
That’s the last memory he had before he spent nearly four months recovering in the hospital. For the first month, he was in a coma.
On Tuesday, Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis announced that 43-year-old Robert Crolley was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 40 years in prison for shooting Martinez.
During the trial, police revealed that they were able to identify Crolley based on interviews with eyewitnesses and video from security cameras that showed Crolley’s Infiniti next to Martinez’s Tesla as the shots were fired.
Police said he told three different stories to explain what happened.
Text messages from Crolley’s cellphone revealed he told his roommate that he needed to hide his car because he was driving drunk and thought a police officer had followed him.
Crolley told investigators that he was not out on the night of the shooting and that several other people regularly drove his car.
Later, police said he called his roommate from jail and admitted to shooting Martinez in self-defense after Martinez pulled out a gun.
“I should be fine if [he] can just convince a jury,” Crolley said on the call.
But Crolley and his lawyers were not able to convince jurors. They found him guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury.
Prosecutors said there was no evidence that Martinez displayed a weapon.
“Road rage is a threat to every driver on our roads, and it has no place in Collin County,” DA Willis said after the sentencing. “This victim didn’t know his attacker and did nothing wrong—he was just doing his job, when he nearly lost his life.”
Jurors considered Crolley’s prior convictions for grand larceny and simple assault and battery when deciding his punishment.
Martinez, who was released from the hospital in June, said he’s lucky to be alive. But he still has a long journey ahead.
“My life is changed. Everything has changed for me,” he said.
