Carjack victims survive night of terror
Toolbox
By Cristina Kumka Herald Staff - Published: August 21, 2008
"Baby, don't let go of me!" screamed Amanda Guyette, 20, of Rutland, as she gripped the steering wheel of her green Chevrolet Cavalier so hard her knuckles were nearly numb.
Amanda's fiancé, Colby Power, gripped her arm even tighter, determined to not let the two men kidnap his girl.
Punches were thrown and Power, legally blind, was hit in the back of his head. An unknown man put his fist threw the open window.
Power's arms went numb. His grip on Guyette went soft.
Guyette had nothing left.
After kicking, cursing and fighting for her life, her fingers were pried off the wheel by the men, whom she described as scrawny but determined as ever to take her car.
She didn't know why or what they wanted with her.
But Guyette did anything she could to stay in that car.
At the same time, Dale Sarama, 36, of Rutland, struggled to break the grasp of his own set of attackers in the backseat.
With Colby nearly knocked out and Guyette being dragged across the coarse, pebbled road, Sarama was on his own. Moments later, he went unconscious and the cell phone he used to try to dial 911 no longer provided a glimmer of hope.
Beaten, bruised and bloody, the three friends were left in the dirt road.
They couldn't see each other, but Power and Guyette reunited in the darkness and ran together toward the nearest highway for help.
Five or six men they didn't know and had never seen before had driven up to them, told them they couldn't park on Wheelerville Road, attacked them for five minutes then drove away with their car, according to Power and Guyette.
It went from being a late-night chill session with Sarama, talking about when he would fix their car, to an attack by strangers.
They were lucky to be alive.
On Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the attack, Power and Guyette said that's all they can be grateful for.
Crusty blood formed around Power's black-and-blue nose. His face was swollen and spirit broken.
Guyette flashed a large bruise on the inside of her arm and a raw, red scrape down the middle of her back. She spoke defiantly, still high off the adrenaline rush from the night before, she said.
"I'm angry, nervous," she said.
Guyette wondered if police had caught all of the men who had beat her. If not, they may finish what they left behind, she said.
Power was less scared, more mad.
"I wanted to combat them but they wanted to kill me," said Power, 20, of Rutland. "You name it, they did it, violently. I'm pissed. It was fight for your life or else. We could've been killed."
In a backwoods area of Vermont, at his favorite fishing spot, Power and his fiancé Guyette, had been attacked by at least four men from Connecticut up north seeking drugs, according to Power and Guyette.
The men were fresh from a shooting they committed minutes earlier in Leicester and were racing from police, according to information from a police affidavit.
"Now I don't wanna go up there anymore," Power said. "I don't know where safe is anymore."
"I'm gonna do whatever I can to make sure they go away for a very long time," he said.
Police arrested four men they say carjacked the three friends Tuesday night.
It's a good thing, Power said, because he knew the men were dangerous.
"When they saw us they had a plan," he said.
John Power, Colby Power's grandfather, said the attack on his grandson was not part of the Vermont he knew.
"It's not typical of Vermont life as far as I'm concerned and it shouldn't be," John Power said. "It should be the highest priority on the list to combat drugs."
Colby Power sat next to his grandfather at the kitchen table. Guyette hopped onto the counter and leaned forward, to hear her fiancé better.
According to Power, Vermont isn't immune to crime and drugs anymore and neither is he or his girl.
"The worse the economy gets, the worse this will get and the worse it's gonna be on our police force," he said.
"It's all about the money," Guyette added.
"Oh, and I don't know if you heard this," Power said.
"But Dale said he heard them say, 'Just smoke 'em.'"
Contact Cristina Kumka at cristina.kumka@rutlandherald.com.