Florida Woman Convicted After Jury Rejects 'Outside Force' Claim in Fatal 94mph Crash

A Florida jury has convicted a woman of vehicular homicide and reckless driving after rejecting her defense that an unexpected loss of control led to a high-speed interstate crash that killed her boyfriend.

On Wednesday, 14 October, the jury in Flagler County, Florida, deliberated for just one hour before returning a guilty verdict for 25-year-old Leigha Mumby regarding the February 2025 collision that caused the death of Daniel Waterman, 22.

Mumby sobbed as the verdicts were read and was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs after Judge Dawn Nichols revoked her bond.

What Happened on the I-95

The crash happened on 9 February 2025, after Mumby and Waterman left a Super Bowl party at his cousin's house. Mumby had also learned that morning that she was pregnant with Waterman's child.

A bitter argument escalated in the vehicle over text messages Waterman had received from another woman. According to the Office of the State Attorney for the seventh judicial circuit of Florida, Mumby was operating the vehicle at 94 miles an hour and jerked the steering wheel to the left.

This caused the vehicle to violently veer off the highway and slam into a dense cluster of trees along the roadside. Waterman suffered a broken neck in the wreck, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. He eventually succumbed to pneumonia after eight months in long-term care on 8 October 2025.

Prosecution's Case of Data and Intent

Assistant state attorney Melissa Clark cited expert testimony and evidence from the vehicle's event data recorder to show that, in the 3.5 seconds before the crash, the vehicle was travelling at 94mph and Mumby had depressed the accelerator to 87 per cent.

Clark told the jury that Mumby jerked the steering wheel at a 45-degree angle while travelling at that speed, describing the action as extremely reckless.

The prosecutor also cited Mumby's words after the crash, telling the jury that she did not claim an outside force had caused the accident when speaking with paramedics.

Clark emphasised that there was no indication that anything else had happened inside the vehicle. She argued that the likely explanation was that Mumby had become extremely upset with her boyfriend during their argument and had done something dangerous in the heat of the moment.

She reiterated that the prosecution did not need to prove Mumby intended to harm Waterman, only that she had wilfully driven recklessly. Clark concluded by arguing that Mumby's actions had effectively handed Waterman a death sentence.

Defense Arguments and a Swift Verdict

Defence attorney Reid Hart challenged the prosecution's account of wilful recklessness, arguing that a brief spike in the accelerator data did not establish intent. He said the pedal had returned to 25 per cent within half a second.

Hart also urged the jury to consider whether an outside force might have caused Mumby to turn the steering wheel, rather than her making a conscious decision to do so. He suggested that something on the road or a fault in the vehicle could have contributed to the crash.

He argued that there was no evidence to suggest Mumby had been in a state of mind in which she would deliberately put both their lives in danger. Despite these arguments, the jury found her guilty after about an hour of deliberation.

No sentencing date has been set, but Mumby faces up to 20 years in prison.