2 Slain In Florida Carjacking -- Survivors Describe Being Kidnapped, Driven To Remote Area

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - Michael Rentas wept yesterday as he remembered how he lay naked in a pasture and played dead while his two best friends were shot to death.

A band of carjackers abducted Rentas, two friends and the girlfriend of one of the friends early yesterday, took them to a remote area and forced the woman to watch the executions that followed.

"I just laid there and wouldn't move because I didn't want to be shot again," said Rentas, 20, who was shot in the right hand as he held his head and prayed. "I just laid still, and I heard another gunshot."

The shooting took place after the four friends were kidnapped in their car in St. Cloud, Fla., and driven 10 miles, past a police station, to the pasture south of Kissimmee on the banks of Shingle Creek.

Killed were Anthony Clifton, 20, of St. Cloud, and Anthony Faiella, 17, of Kissimmee. After the shootings, Tammy George, 25, stood nearby as Rentas flagged down a car on nearby South Orange Blossom Trail. More than 15 cars sped past him as he stood naked in the night, pressing his wounded hand against his belly to try to stop the bleeding, Rentas said.

George, who survived unhurt, said yesterday that all she could recall was laughter, loud music and the methodical way a young gunman shot each of her friends in the back of the head.

By midday yesterday, a 1988 Nissan Pathfinder belonging to Faiella was found abandoned in nearby Polk County.

The robbery happened about 2 a.m. after Faiella and Rentas drove to The Palms nightclub on the outskirts of St. Cloud to pick up Clifton and his friend, George, according to police and interviews with the survivors.

Clifton, a starting offensive lineman on the 1990 St. Cloud High School football team, had spent the night drinking and listening to music at the nightclub and needed a ride home. Faiella and Rentas also agreed to give George a lift home to Kissimmee.

Everything was fine until Faiella turned off Highway 192 in St. Cloud to drive down Vermont Avenue, where Clifton lived with his parents. A red pickup truck bumped into the rear of Faiella's Pathfinder and Faiella pulled over to check for damage, according to interviews.

The pickup pulled alongside. Rentas remembers that one of five or six young men, probably between the ages of 18 and 23, riding in the truck asked, "Is everything all right?"

Then, Rentas said, someone in the pickup called out, "Not now!" and uttered a profanity and all of the passengers drew pistols.

George, who had remained in the Pathfinder, said she did not recognize any of the men in the pickup from the bar.

She remembered that two men with pistols forced her and her three friends into the Pathfinder's back seat and hatchback area.

One of the attackers rode with his back to the dashboard, pointing a pistol at them, while another drove, following the pickup, George and Rentas said. The one facing the four captives taunted George, who is black, for hanging out with three white friends. All of the carjackers were black, the victims said.

The taunts and threats continued throughout the drive from St. Cloud through Kissimmee as the Pathfinder followed the red pickup toward Polk County, both survivors said. Nothing seemed to bother the gunmen; they passed by about six police cars on a route that went past the Kissimmee police station, the survivors said.

In particular, Rentas remembered one of the carjackers repeatedly say, "If you guys ain't got no money I'm in the mood to kill . . . tonight."

Both vehicles pulled off the road and drove into a pasture when the pickup started overheating, Rentas said.

"They made us take off all of our clothes and put our hands over our heads. They made us lay on the ground and then they started shooting," Rentas said, his right arm wrapped in a blood-stained bandage. "I guess they shot Anthony Clifton first, because he was lying on my left and the first shot came from there."

Investigators do not know the motive for the killings.

The fact that they fled and left George as a witness "gives the appearance (the killers) were making a statement. They weren't joking around," sheriff's Cmdr. Jack Pate said. "Is it drug-related? Is it race-related? Is it hate-related? That we have not been able to pin down."