Leigha Mumby went on trial in Flagler County on Oct. 13, 2026, over charges of vehicular homicide and reckless driving in a crash that killed Daniel Waterman. Prosecutors say the case turns on what happened inside the car before it hit a tree.
Investigators said Mumby accelerated to more than 90 mph before the vehicle left the road on I-95. Waterman, 22, initially survived, suffered serious injuries and later fell into a coma before dying months later from those injuries.
Florida Highway Patrol account
Prosecutors told jurors that Mumby and Waterman were arguing in the car minutes before the crash. They said Mumby told him, "I don't care what happens. You'll get what you deserve," and described her as screaming that Waterman was cheating on her and that she had seen a text from another woman.
The state is using that timeline to support its claim that the crash was intentional, not a loss of control. That dispute sits at the center of the trial and will shape whether jurors view the wreck as reckless driving alone or as conduct tied to a more serious criminal charge.
Leigha Mumby and Daniel Waterman
Defense attorneys pushed back and told jurors, "Does it make more sense that something happened within that vehicle that she did not expect, she did not anticipate, and she did not control?" They argued that Mumby did not deliberately crash the vehicle and instead lost control.
Mumby was pregnant with Waterman's child at the time of the crash, adding another layer to a case already built around the death of a 22-year-old man who first survived the wreck. For jurors, the dispute is now over intent: whether the speed, the argument and the final seconds inside the car point to a deliberate act or an accident.
