It Took 11 Minutes

Michael Kruse: STARKE — The state executed Robert Waterhouse on Wednesday night, more than 32 years after he beat, raped and killed petite, red-haired Debbie Kammerer in St. Petersburg.

He was pronounced dead at 8:22 p.m. He was 65.

He was 33 at the time of the crime, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound, on-again, off-again construction hand who had been raised by an aunt. He drank too much and got mean when he did. He told friends he liked women who liked to be slapped.

She was 29, a foot shorter and more than 100 pounds lighter, a divorced mother of three whom friends described as fun and friendly and little. Her landlord called her sweet and said she always paid her bills. She had just been home to Indiana for Christmas to visit her kids.