SARASOTA, FLORIDA: A man who raped, strangled his neighbor using a drapery cord and then pulled off her fingernails has been released from prison back into the community despite objections from his former neighbors. The man, John Waterman, was released from prison early after serving less than half of his sentence. He was released from involuntary confinement after two psychologists found that "within a reasonable degree of psychological certainty, that Mr Waterman no longer poses a threat," WFLA reports.
Waterman had initially been sentenced to prison for 45 years after he raped and murdered his neighbor, 36, and raped another woman, 31. The accused had served only 20 years (44% of his original sentence) before being released on good behavior. He was granted early release as he had been sentenced under the state's older sentencing laws. As reported by PEOPLE, Florida Assistant State Attorney Ryan Felix said, "the law now is that you have to serve 85% of your sentence."
Once Waterman was released, he was civilly committed to a mental health correctional facility and remained there until a doctor was able to deem him safe to reenter society. On Monday, August 24, a Florida circuit court judge had ruled that Waterman no longer fit the criteria to be civilly committed given the opinion of a doctor who determined that he was unlikely to offend again.
In a release order that was obtained by the publication, the judge had written, "the agreed-upon doctor in this matter is of the opinion within a reasonable degree of psychological certainty that [Waterman’s] mental condition has so changed as a result of sexual offender treatment that it is safe for [Waterman] to be released to an outpatient sexual offender treatment program and that he will not engage of acts of sexual violence."
According to sex offender records from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Waterman has already been released and has also agreed to join an outpatient program for sex offenders in Lake Shore Village in Orlando, Oxygen reveals. His neighbors, however, are not pleased that he will be back on the streets.
Many of them spoke to PEOPLE and expressed their outrage. Resident Rebecca Tharpe said that everyone knows just how "dangerous" Waterman can be adding that she feels bad for the families of the victims who did not get justice. "He’s a rapist and a murderer. He’s also a kidnapper, because he kidnapped her and he raped her and he murdered her and he pulled her fingernails off… He’s still a very viable man. And these crimes typically are not about the sex, it’s about the violence and the power. I think the fact that he’s been released, it’s terrible," Tharpe shared.
A lawyer and former president of the Hudson Bayou Neighborhood Association where Waterman and his victims lived, Susan Chapman, added, "The community is kind of up in arms."
Waterman had lived next to the victim, Jackie Galloway. Jackie had planned to go to lunch with a friend but when the friend arrived at her house, she found the door unlocked. The incident had taken place on June 12, 1991. The friend saw Jackie's purse on the couch but there was no sign of her.
Jackie's body was found the following day in a field around 10 miles from Sarasota with her fingernails ripped off and her body wrapped up in a beige bed sheet.
