A dying young man pulled his hand away from his girlfriend in a hospital bed after a car crash that prosecutors now allege she caused intentionally, his family says.
Tiffany, the aunt of 22-year-old Upstate New York landscaper Daniel Waterman, told the Daily Mail that he recoiled from Leigha Mumby when he regained consciousness at a Florida hospital in February 2025 and realized she was holding his hand.
According to Tiffany, Waterman later regained movement in his arms and turned photographs of himself and Mumby, which had been placed around his bed to lift his spirits, face down.
Waterman suffered fatal injuries when Mumby’s car struck a tree in her hometown of Flagler.
He died in hospital eight months later, in October 2025.
Tiffany said Waterman’s relatives initially accepted Mumby’s account that the collision had been a tragic accident.
The family allowed Mumby, who was pregnant with Waterman’s child, to visit him in hospital while she recovered from injuries sustained in the crash.
Mumby was later accused of deliberately driving into the tree, allegedly moments after complaining that Waterman had been unfaithful.
Daniel Waterman, a landscaper, was critically injured in the February 2025 crash and died eight months later, in October 2025
Leigha Mumby is shown beside her late boyfriend Daniel Waterman in his hospital bed after the crash that left him with fatal injuries. She is charged with deliberately causing the collision and is due to stand trial next week
Mumby has been charged with vehicular homicide and denies the allegation. Her trial is scheduled to begin Thursday.
Waterman’s family has compared the case with that of Mackenzie Shirilla, the Ohio teenager known as “Hell on Wheels” and featured in the Netflix documentary The Crash.
Shirilla, now 23, was convicted of killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and his friend, David Flanagan, 19, by deliberately driving her Toyota Camry into a brick wall.
She is serving a life sentence for the July 2022 deaths. “I was shocked by how similar the cases are,” Tiffany told the Daily Mail.
Mumby, who has since given birth to Waterman’s child, says she cannot remember what happened. Prosecutors and Waterman’s relatives offer a sharply different account.
Tiffany gave the Daily Mail a video showing Waterman drifting in and out of consciousness in hospital nine days after the crash.
She said the family brought Mumby to Waterman’s bedside in a wheelchair after surrounding him with photographs of the couple during happier moments. Waterman later turned those images face down, Tiffany said.
In the footage, Mumby wears a hospital gown and holds Waterman’s left hand. Tiffany said he repeatedly tried to pull his hand away.
Daniel Waterman is pictured with Leigha Mumby in an undated photograph. The couple met on the dating app Bumble in 2024
Leigha Mumby appears in court last month. She has pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide
Daniel Waterman is seen in his hospital bed with girlfriend Leigha Mumby to his right. Waterman’s family said he tried to yank his hand away on realizing that Mumby was holding it
Daniel Waterman, of Liverpool in Upstate New York, told a police investigator that Leigha Mumby deliberately crashed the car the night he was fatally injured, according to an affidavit seen by the Daily Mail
‘He shook his head when Leigha came up to his bed,’ she 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.
An affidavit obtained by the Mail shows that Waterman told Police Officer Darin Harper the same story when interviewed about the crash on May 15, 2025.
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‘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,’ Harper wrote in the affidavit.
The nightmare began on the night of February 9, 2025, as Mumby drove her white Honda Passport through Flagler County with Waterman in the passenger seat just before 10.30pm.
Waterman’s family told the Daily Mail the case is eerily similar to that of Mackenzie Shirilla, 23, who was jailed in August 2023 for killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo and his friend by intentionally crashing into a brick wall in Ohio on July 31, 2022. Shirilla is pictured with Russo
Daniel is pictured with his family, including his aunt Tiffany Waterman in the red dress, and his cousins who were more like siblings to him, his relatives told the Daily Mail
Mumby had learned earlier that day that she was pregnant.
The couple had just left a Super Bowl party hosted by Waterman’s cousins – Tiffany’s children – suddenly and without saying goodbye to anyone, according to his aunt.
Tiffany told Daily the Mail that Mumby had shown Waterman and his cousin, Sarah, a positive pregnancy test before the party, before privately telling Sarah: ‘I will make sure Daniel never cheats on me again’.
The police affidavit details how Mumby’s Honda hurtled down Interstate 95 and accelerated to a speed of about 93mph five seconds before the crash at 10.25pm.
Officer Harper wrote in the arrest document that the accelerator pedal reached ‘100 percent throttle’ by the time of impact.
He added that ‘the brakes were not applied’ and ‘a notable steering input of 45 degrees right followed by a sudden left input of 30 degrees’ was applied seconds before the collision.
The Honda was destroyed in the crash, and firefighters had to extract the couple from the wreckage before rushing them to hospital.
Mumby sustained ‘serious injuries’, while Waterman suffered several ‘life threatening injuries’ to his chest and lung, along with blood clots and fractures to his spine, clavicle, and femur, a dislocated hip.
Daniel was a 22-year-old landscaper from Liverpool, close to Syracuse in upstate New York
Daniel is pictured with several relatives, including his cousin Sarah, pictured second from the left in the front row, who Mumby allegedly made the cheating claims to on the day of the crash
Officer Harper wrote in the affidavit that he interviewed Waterman on May 15, 2025, and the alleged victim told him that he had been arguing with Mumby in the moments before the crash.
Waterman said they squabbled about ‘personal issues, with Leigha finding out she was pregnant that day and a text message Daniel received from a female friend in New York,’ according to the affidavit.
‘Daniel and Leigha exchanged expletives,’ the document adds. Waterman told Officer Harper that ‘Leigha began driving recklessly’ before initially slowing down to 50 miles per hour.
Waterman told the officer he ‘tried to get out of the car’ at this point, but Mumby ‘began to speed up to 80 to 90 miles per hour’ before telling him: ‘I don’t care what happens, you’ll get what you deserve’.
Tiffany said Waterman lived in Liverpool, close to Syracuse in upstate New York, with his family, who took turns to fly to Florida as he lay in hospital.
She told the Mail her nephew suffered from night terrors in the aftermath of the crash. ‘He would wake up crying and cover his face with his arm,’ she said.
Daniel was watching his team, Kansas City Chiefs, play during the Super Bowl before the crash
Tiffany added that Waterman met Mumby on the Bumble dating app while he was visiting Flagler County in January 2024, and they had an on-again-off-again long distance relationship.
Mumby even met Waterman’s family in leafy Liverpool during November 2024 for Thanksgiving. ‘She seemed sweet, friendly and quiet,’ Tiffany told the Mail. ‘She didn’t say much.
‘After the crash, what I felt for her was concern. I even texted her saying: ‘We are family now, anything you need for the baby, let me know’. We took her in. We loved her, she was one of us. To find this out was heartbreaking.’
Mumby has been banned from contacting the Watermans because of a restraining order issued in the wake of Daniel’s death.
Tiffany said this means they are unable to see her nephew’s baby daughter, who was born three days after his death. They are fighting for custody of the youngster in civil court.
‘Our biggest concern is definitely the safety and well-being of the baby and making sure she’s in a loving home,’ Tiffany told the Mail.
‘We don’t feel like that is with a person capable of all of these crimes.’