Man Woke from Coma to Tell Police Girlfriend Caused Accident That Critically Injured Him Before His Death

Now, Leigha Mumby, 24, is facing charges after the February 9 crash that would ultimately be a contributing factor in the death of her boyfriend Daniel Waterman, 22, on October 8. He would ultimately die after developing pneumonia, reports Law&Crime.

“He never gave up,” his mother Heather Waterman told The Post-Standard. “This whole entire time, he literally never gave up.”

On the morning of October 27, Mumby was charged with one count of vehicular homicide. This charge was added after Waterman’s death and was in addition to two charges she picked up in July after Waterman first woke up from his coma in May and told police what happened that night in February.

After incorporating the details of his story into their ongoing investigation into the crash, Mumby was arrested in July and charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and reckless driving causing serious bodily injury, according to her arrest affidavit.

The document details the accident, stating that both people in the vehicle were seriously injured, with Flagler County Fire Rescue having to extract Mumby from the vehicle. According to the document, she told police “several days later,” after her release from the hospital, that she did “not know what happened prior to the crash and only remembers waking up in agonizing pain.”

Unable to speak, Waterman’s mother told the newspaper that he was able to tell his story with investigators by having them point to letters on a board with him making sounds to indicate the letter he wanted to use. She said that it took an hour and a half to learn that the accident that had put him in a coma was no accident.

According to Waterman’s meticulous statement, he and Mumby were in the car and arguing while traveling down I-95 in Flagler County, Florida on Sunday night.

He said that Flagler, who had just found out she was pregnant earlier that day, was arguing with him about a text he had received from a woman back in New York, where he was from. Heather told the Post-Standard that her son told her he was texting the friend back home because he was a Kansas City Chiefs fan and the friend was a Philadelphia Eagles fan. The date of the crash was the same day as the Super Bowl, where both teams faced off against each other.

As the argument escalated, according to Waterman, he said that Mumby began to drive more recklessly, and so as the vehicle slowed to around 50 mph, he actually tried to jump out. After that, he said she sped up to between 80 and 90 mph.

The last thing he told police he remembered was her saying, “I don’t care what happens, you’ll get what you deserve.” After that, the car flew off the road and into a tree and Waterman would not remember anything until May.

Investigators stated in court papers, per the Post-Standard, that his story was corroborated by the vehicle’s event data recorder, which tracked the acceleration prior to the crash, among other details consistent with his story.

The criminal complaint details the injuries Waterman sustained in the accident, including a “C6-7 fracture, cervical spine injury, clavicle fracture, femur fracture, hip dislocation, epidural hematoma, pneumothorax with pulmonary contusion, zygomatic and temporal contusion, [and a] talus fracture.”

After waking from his coma in Florida, Heather told the Post-Standard that the family moved him from Daytona Beach back to Syracuse, New York in late July. There, he was treated at Upstate University Hospital where is condition had begun to improve. She said that he was out of his bed and getting around in a wheelchair; even starting physical therapy and talking about starting up a sports podcast. Then he caught pneumonia and died on October 8.

His death, however, complicates the case against Mumby, as Heather said that his statement to police after waking from the coma may ultimately be determined inadmissible in court because he would not be available to be cross-examined.

Additionally, Heather Waterman and her family are now looking at a possible interstate custody battle over Mumby’s child. Heather said that her son was taking online parenting courses while recovering in August, with her using the mouse for him as he still had limited mobility.

Heather said that he had told her he was going to be there for his daughter as much as his father was not there for him, that he would always show up for her and never break a promise to her. She told the newspaper that he died before paternity could be established, but his dying wish was for them to get custody of the baby.

“We’ll do whatever we can do to bring her to us,” Heather said. “He wanted her raised in New York with his family.”

At the time of the crash, Waterman’s cousin, Jessica Stappenback, told FlaglerLive.com that he was less certain what he wanted to do about the baby. She and her sister Sarah had spent that Super Bowl Sunday with the couple before the crash.

“During the day, he did say, he didn’t know what he was going to do, and he didn’t like how Leigha was handling the situation,” Jessica said of her cousin’s mood. She said that the couple left before the game was over, with Jessica saying that she was the last person to speak with Mumby before the accident.

She told the news outlet that Mumby called her twice during that ultimately fatal drive, both times upset because she thought Waterman was in contact with a former girlfriend. She said they got a strange text from Waterman’s phone four minutes before the impact that read, “this is what he gets for being a liar and a cheater.”

“That was something that we think Leigha texted, because I don’t know why Daniel would send that on his own phone to Leigha,” Jessica said, adding that at one point she heard Waterman say that Mumby had “grabbed his phone from him.”

Booked originally into the Flagler County Jail on the first two charges in July, Mumby was immediately released on $25,000 bond. She has yet to be arraigned on the new charge. Her next pre-trial court appearance is scheduled for November 19.