BUNNELL, Fla. (Court TV) — A defendant sobbed in court as a jury convicted her in the crash that killed her boyfriend.
The jury deliberated for only one hour before finding Leigha Mumby, 25, guilty of reckless driving causing serious bodily injury and vehicular homicide in the death of Daniel Waterman, 22.
Leigha Mumby appears in court on Oct. 14, 2026. (Court TV)
Waterman and Mumby were driving home after leaving a Super Bowl party on Feb. 9, 2025, when they began arguing in the car. Mumby, who had learned she was pregnant with Waterman’s child that morning, was upset because she believed her boyfriend had been texting other women. Mumby was behind the wheel of her 2019 Honda Passport when the car left I-95 northbound and crashed into a tree.
Assistant state attorney Melissa Clark cited expert testimony and data showing that in the 3.5 seconds before impact, Mumby’s Honda Passport was traveling 94 miles per hour and the accelerator pedal was depressed 87 percent. “She’s wanting to go faster, and then jerks the wheel at a 45-degree angle, which we know is extremely dangerous and reckless. And then she jerks the wheel 30 degrees to the right, a total change of 75 degrees, causing the car to veer off the road and head towards the wood line, where it impacts those trees at 70 miles per hour, causing catastrophic injuries to Daniel Waterman.”
While Clark told the jury that Mumby was “practically flooring the accelerator when she’s already traveling at 94 miles an hour” in the seconds before the crash, Mumby’s defense attorney, Reid Hart, said the data showed otherwise. Hart conceded that the accelerator was depressed 87 percent for a moment, but noted that “within half a second, that accelerator pedal was back to 25 percent. So, this is not an indication that Ms. Mumby was intending to ramp it up and keep it that way. She let it off right away, because she didn’t expect that to happen.”
Hart argued there was no reason to believe that the defendant’s state of mind led to the crash. “I understand that the instructions do not require you to find that Ms. Mumby intended to harm Mr. Waterman, or intended to harm herself or her unborn child, but it does require that it showed that she intended or at least had a purpose when that steering wheel was turned to the left hand side,” Hart said. “With those definitions in mind, you must decide again whether when she did that, Ms. Mumby chose to operate her vehicle in the manner described or whether something happened — that but for some outside influence, but for that interruption to her driving, she would have continued straight down the highway, just as she had done up to that point.”
Leigha Mumby is led out of the courtroom after her conviction on Oct. 14, 2026. (Court TV)
But Clark countered that Mumby’s own words to paramedics immediately after the crash failed to mention any “outside force.”
“At no time does she say that something else happened in that car, because nothing else did,” Clark said. “What happened in this car is that you have a woman who’s extremely upset with her boyfriend. They’re arguing, and she’s driving erratically, because in the heat of the moment she’s extremely angry and can’t get him out of her car fast enough. She’s had it with him, and she’s turning around to take him back and she’s driving erratically because she’s extremely angry. That’s what we have, ladies and gentlemen, not that something else happened in that car.”
Mumby suffered broken bones from the crash, while Waterman had a broken neck that left him paralyzed. He never left the hospital, but woke up briefly before dying in the ICU eight months after the crash, on Oct. 8, 2025.
The jury rejected the defense’s argument, despite Hart’s emphatic closing plea. “In order to believe the state’s version of events in this case, you would have to believe that Ms. Mumby was on a suicide mission. There’s absolutely zero evidence or reason to believe that she was in a place where she was going to put all of their lives, including hers and that of her unborn child, at risk of serious bodily harm or death.”
Clark emphasized that she did not have to prove Mumby’s intent — only that she was behaving with a “willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property. That’s reckless driving.”
Mumby initially faced an additional aggravated battery charge, but prosecutors dropped the charge before her trial began.
Mumby began to cry as the guilty verdicts were read and was sobbing as Judge Dawn Nichols revoked her bond ahead of sentencing. Mumby was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
No sentencing date was immediately available.
