A 25-year-old Florida woman described by the victim’s family as “Mackenzie Shirilla 2.0” wept in court after being convicted of deliberately driving into a tree and killing her boyfriend.
Leigha Mumby was found guilty Wednesday of vehicular homicide and reckless driving. Her boyfriend, 22-year-old Daniel Waterman, died on October 8, 2025, from injuries he suffered in the crash eight months earlier.
Waterman’s family previously told the Daily Mail that the case bears striking similarities to that of Mackenzie Shirilla, 23, who was sentenced to prison for killing her boyfriend and his friend by intentionally driving into a brick wall in Ohio on July 31, 2022.
Mumby was pregnant when the February 9, 2025, collision occurred and has since become a mother. A jury reached its verdict after deliberating for about an hour.
She broke down as the verdict was announced at the Flagler County courthouse, tears running down her face as she sobbed loudly.
Mumby could receive up to 30 years in prison for vehicular homicide under Florida law, along with a possible five-year sentence for reckless driving resulting in serious bodily injury.
During the trial, Mumby maintained that she could not remember the crash and insisted it had been an accident.
Waterman’s devastated aunt, Tiffany, said the family initially accepted that explanation. Nine days after the collision, relatives even brought Mumby to the hospital, where she held Waterman’s hand at his bedside.
Tiffany provided the Daily Mail with video showing the moment Waterman regained consciousness and saw Mumby just inches away, while he remained paralyzed and unable to speak or communicate normally.
Leigha Mumby, described by the victim’s family as “Mackenzie Shirilla 2.0,” broke down in court after being convicted of deliberately driving her car into a tree and killing her boyfriend
Leigha Mumby was convicted Wednesday of vehicular homicide and reckless driving after Daniel Waterman, 22, died in October from injuries suffered in the crash eight months earlier. Mumby and Waterman, who met on Bumble, are pictured together
The disturbing footage shows Waterman, a well-liked landscaper who met Mumby through Bumble, drifting in and out of consciousness in his hospital bed.
Mumby appears in a wheelchair wearing a hospital gown as she holds his left hand. Tiffany said Waterman repeatedly tried to pull his hand away.
“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.”
The video also shows Waterman jerking his head in apparent panic when he wakes beside Mumby. Relatives attempt to reassure him, repeatedly telling him, “You’re safe now.”
Several tubes blocked Waterman’s mouth, leaving him unable to speak. Tiffany said he later used a letterboard to tell his mother that Mumby had intentionally crashed the vehicle after accusing him of cheating.
“He still had tubes in his mouth, but he said: ‘Help me, help me. She killed me, she killed me,’” Tiffany said.
While Waterman was unconscious, relatives placed photographs of him and Mumby during happier moments around his hospital bed.
Tiffany said Waterman turned the pictures face-down after he regained movement in his arms, which she viewed as another troubling indication that the crash had not been accidental.
Waterman’s heartbroken aunt, Tiffany, previously told the Daily Mail that the family initially believed the crash was an accident – until her partially-paralyzed nephew was able to communicate what really happened using a letterboard
An affidavit obtained by the Daily Mail shows that Waterman told Police Officer Darin Harper the same story when interviewed about the crash on May 15, 2025.
‘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.
Mumby had learned earlier that day that she was pregnant, and the couple had just left a Super Bowl party hosted by Waterman’s cousins, who are also Tiffany’s children, suddenly and without saying goodbye to anyone, according to his aunt.
Tiffany told 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.
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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.
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 and his friend by intentionally crashing into a brick wall in Ohio on July 31, 2022. Shirilla is pictured with Russo
Daniel Waterman, who worked as a landscaper, was injured in the crash in February 2025 and died of his injuries eight months later, in October 2025
Leigha Mumby is pictured beside her late boyfriend Daniel Waterman in his hospital bed after a car crash that left him with fatal injuries. She is now charged with crashing the vehicle on purpose and is due to stand trial next week
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.
Officer Harper wrote in the affidavit that he interviewed Waterman on May 15, 2025, and the 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, and they took it in turns to fly to Flagler, Florida, during his treatment in hospital so that somebody was always by his side.
She told the Daily 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.
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 until the collision.
Leigha Mumby is pictured 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
Mumby even met Waterman’s family in leafy Liverpool during November 2024 for Thanksgiving. ‘She seemed sweet, friendly and quiet,’ Tiffany said. ‘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.’
Tiffany added that due to an automatic court-ordered restraining order forbidding contact between Mumby and the Watermans, they have not been able to meet Daniel’s child, a little girl born three days after he died.
She said that the family has been fighting a battle on two fronts – one in criminal court for justice, and another in civil court for custody of the baby.
‘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 Daily Mail.
‘We don’t feel like that is with a person capable of all of these crimes.’
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
Tiffany compared the case to that of Shirilla, who was handed two life sentences in August 2023 for killing her boyfriend Dominic Russo, 20, and his friend David Flanagan, 19, during the early hours of July 31, 2022, in Strongsville, Ohio.
Shirilla slammed her car at 100mph into a brick wall. She was 17 years old at the time of the slaughter, and her sentence includes the possibility of parole after 15 years.
‘I was shocked by how similar the cases are,’ Tiffany told the Daily Mail.
Mumby is due to be sentenced for her crimes later this year.
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