Trial halted for woman accused of killing boyfriend in car crash

DAILYMAIL.COM • 1h ago

By WILL POTTER, US SENIOR NEWS REPORTER 21:27 13 Oct 2026, updated 21:31 13 Oct 2026

The trial of a Florida woman accused of killing her boyfriend in an on-purpose car crash was abruptly halted after she broke down and wept uncontrollably in front of the jury.

Leigha Mumby, 25, dramatically burst into tears on Tuesday as prosecutors laid out their opening statement, leading a judge to order the jury to leave the room so she could compose herself.

Mumby was seen in courtroom footage holding her head in her hands and wiping her eyes, before she told the court she was ‘fine’ and she promised to remain calm.

The outburst came as prosecutors began presenting evidence in Mumby’s case, arguing that the 25-year-old purposefully crashed her car to kill her boyfriend Daniel Waterman, 22, in February 2025.

Mumby allegedly speeded at over 100mph on the I-95 highway in Bunnell, Florida, before making an ‘abrupt, left-hand turn at 45 degrees’ to flip the car into a wooded area, prosecutors say.

Waterman suffered a broken neck and he was paralyzed from the neck down, and he fell into a coma. He died eight months later, and prosecutors alleged that his death was ‘directly related and caused by this crash.’

Mumby has pleaded not guilty to charges of reckless driving causing serious bodily injury and vehicular homicide, and her attorneys argued the crash was a freak accident.

The crash unfolded after the couple left a Super Bowl party hosted by Waterman’s cousin Sarah Stappenbeck, and prosecutors say Mumby and Waterman got into a heated argument.

At Tuesday’s hearing which was delayed by Mumby’s emotional outburst, Stappenbeck took the stand to testify about the couple’s tumultuous relationship.

She said that she had only recently learned that Mumby was pregnant before the crash, and said she ‘expressed concerns’ that Waterman was speaking to other women.

She said she ‘wasn’t going to let Daniel cheat on (Mumby)’, but said the couple appeared to be fine when they were at the Super Bowl party.

The couple left early, she said, but she recalled within 20 minutes Mumby called her and said ‘(Waterman) was texting another girl.’

Stappenbeck said Mumby told her she was bringing Waterman back to her house, and she said she responded by trying to calm the hostile situation.

‘I tried to tell them, you know, ‘Get home safe, there’s a lot of cars on the road, it’s the Super Bowl, you guys had a big day today, you guys can just worry about this tomorrow, just, I want you guys to be safe,’ and she just wasn’t listening, wasn’t being rational,’ Stappenbeck said, reports CourtTV.

‘She just said that ‘You’re taking his side,’ and hung up with me.’

Stappenbeck said Mumby and Waterman never returned back at her home, and she said the next call she got was from Mumby’s roommate telling her there had been a car accident.

In opening statements on Tuesday, Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark alleged that Mumby careened her car off the highway with a purposeful and ‘reckless’ 45-degree swerve.

Mumby’s attorney Reid Hart denied the allegations that the 25-year-old caused the car wreck on purpose, and said the crash was a ‘pure and utter tragedy’.

Hart said: ‘The crux of this trial effectively comes down to one steering wheel input, and ultimately one question: Does it make sense, based on the testimony and evidence that will be presented to you, that Ms. Mumby chose to drive her vehicle in the manner described?

‘Or 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?

‘And despite her best efforts to avoid that car careening into the woods, once the proverbial wheels were set in motion, there was nothing she could do to stop it.’

Mumby’s trial got underway following a controversial ruling that barred prosecutors from telling the jury of an interview police detectives did with Waterman in the ICU after the crash.

Waterman, who was severely injured at the time, told detectives that the ‘the last thing he remembers before the crash was Leigha told him, ‘I don’t care what happens, you’ll get what you deserve”, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors attempted to bring the interview into evidence, but were barred from doing so by laws that guarantee a defendant’s right to cross-examine witnesses.

Ahead of Mumby’s trial, Waterman’s aunt Tiffany told the Daily Mail that their family initially believed Mumby’s insistence that the crash was an accident, and they let him visit him in hospital as he lay injured.

But after hearing alleged evidence that the crash was on purpose, Tiffany said her family believed the case was similar to that of Mackenzie Shirilla, the infamous ‘Hell on Wheels’ teen and subject of Netflix documentary The Crash.

The Ohio murderess, now 23, killed her boyfriend Dominic Russo, 20, and his friend David Flanagan, 19 by deliberately slamming her Toyota Camry into a brick wall.

She is serving life in prison over the July 2022 killings, with Tiffany telling the Daily Mail: ‘I was shocked by how similar the cases are.’

Mumby, who has since had Waterman’s child, said she had no memory of what happened.

But Waterman’s family say they believe he was hinting at Mumby’s guilt from his hospital bed, including turning pictures of himself with Mumby upside down when they were placed next to him.

In footage from one occasion from hospital shared with the Daily Mail, Waterman also appeared to try and pull away from Mumby as she visited him.

‘He shook his head when Leigha came up to his bed,’ Tiffany told the Daily Mail. ‘He was coming in and out of consciousness, so we thought he was confused. When she tried to hold his hand, he pulled away. We didn’t know why at the time.’

Waterman could also be seen jerking his head in apparent panic as he woke up beside Mumby in the video, while his relatives tried to comfort him, telling him ‘you’re safe now’.

The alleged victim’s mouth was obscured by several tubes and he could not speak.

Tiffany told the Mail that he later used a letterboard to tell his mother that Mumby had crashed the car on purpose after accusing him of cheating on her.

‘He still had tubes in his mouth, but he said: ‘Help me, help me. She killed me, she killed me,” Tiffany said.

Mumby denies the allegations. Her trial is ongoing, and she faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted.

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