BUNNELL, Fla. (Court TV) — A woman accused of causing a crash that killed her boyfriend won a pretrial victory after a judge decided that the dying victim’s statements could not be used at trial.
Leigha Mumby (Flagler County Sheriff’s Office)
Leigha Mumby, 25, has pleaded not guilty to reckless driving causing serious bodily injury and vehicular homicide in the death of Daniel Waterman, 22.
Mumby was behind the wheel of a white 2019 Honda Passport on Feb. 9, 2025, when the vehicle hit speeds of 93 to 95 mph seconds before slamming into a tree. Both Mumby and Waterman suffered serious injuries. While Mumby was eventually released from the hospital, Waterman died from his injuries eight months later, on Oct. 8, 2025.
When police spoke to her, Mumby said she didn’t remember anything about the crash, only waking up in “agonizing pain.” In charging documents reviewed by Court TV, prosecutors said that the car’s black box data showed that Mumby never applied the brakes and had the accelerator at 100 percent throttle at the time of impact.
Before his death, while he was in the ICU, Waterman spoke with detectives and told them that right before the crash he had been fighting with the defendant — who had found out she was pregnant earlier that day — because he had received a text from another girl. Waterman told the police that Mumby began driving recklessly. “Daniel stated she slowed down to 50 miles per hour and he tried to get out of the car, but then Leigha began to speed up to 80 or 90 miles per hour. Daniel stated the last thing he remembers before the crash was Leigha told him, ‘I don’t care what happens, you’ll get what you deserve,’ and swerved off the roadway, colliding with a tree.”
At a motions hearing on Wednesday, Mumby’s attorney asked Judge Dawn Nichols to bar prosecutors from using Waterman’s statements at trial. “I do not have a legal ground to be able to use them,” Assistant State Attorney Amanda Barchardt conceded. “I would like to use them. I don’t have an exception to the hearsay rule that would allow me to use them. … I’m kind of obviously bound by the rules of evidence.”
Nichols agreed the statements were inadmissible, and took time to address the courtroom’s gallery to explain her decision. “I can certainly understand why individuals would be very upset with the evidentiary ruling, regarding these statements that were allegedly made. The court is bound by the law and the court is bound by the rules of evidence, and, as such, the court will follow the law and abide by the rules of evidence.”
Daniel Waterman (Obituary via Syracuse.com)
Mumby’s defense attorney, Reid Hart, fought Barchardt over whether the defendant’s roommate could testify about a phone call just before the crash. The roommate would testify, Hart said, that Mumby called him, saying she was arguing with the victim and that Waterman was “drunk and acting crazy.” While Hart said the call offered insight into what was happening inside the car and the defendant’s state of mind, Barchardt dismissed the statements as self-serving.
Barchardt also questioned the witness’s credibility, asking the judge to allow the state to elicit testimony from the roommate that his relationship with the defendant was based on her role as a “financial dominatrix.” Barchardt said that because of the power-exchange nature of the relationship, Mumby could control what the witness said.
Nichols ruled the statements could come in, with limits, but that any discussion of the “unique, interesting relationship” would be inadmissible unless testimony specifically opened the door to questioning about it.
Mumby gave birth on Oct. 11, 2025, WSYR reported, to a baby girl whom the Waterman family has never met.
Jury selection is scheduled to start on Oct. 12. A community group has organized a silent protest outside the courthouse seeking justice for Waterman, but Nichols said she was not concerned that the group would sway potential jurors.
