‘He was the abuser’: Courtney Clenney’s lawyer insists she was the victim of domestic violence

The lawyer for an OnlyFans model charged with murdering her boyfriend has condemned prosecutors for releasing footage of her attacking him – and insisted that he was ‘the abuser’.

Courtney Clenney, 26, was detained on Wednesday at a rehab center in Laupahoehoe, on Hawaii’s Big Island, where she was being treated for alcohol issues and PTSD.

She has been charged with second-degree murder over the April 3 death of her boyfriend Christian Obumseli, 27, at the home they shared in Miami.

Clenney insisted that she stabbed Obumseli in self defense after he grabbed her by the throat.

Prosecutors in Florida on Thursday released video of Clenney attacking Obumseli in an elevator on February 21, but Clenney’s lawyer Frank Prieto said the video was ‘irrelevant and likely inadmissible’.

Obumseli’s family do not believe that he was threatening to harm his girlfriend Clenney

‘It is a shame that the State Attorney’s Office is seeking to win this case in the court of public opinion by showing an irrelevant and likely inadmissible video of Courtney in an elevator getting physical with Obumseli,’ said Prieto.

‘The video does not depict the events leading up to what was captured in the elevator.’

He insisted that the violence was meted out by the Texan cryptocurrency trader, not his client.

‘Obumseli was the abuser, the worst kind of abuser,’ he said.

‘He would manipulate and abuse Courtney in private when he thought nobody was around.’

Prieto pointed to a witness who said Obumseli hit Clenney.

Other witnesses have said the opposite.

Prieto admitted that the pair, who had been dating for less than two years, had ‘a tumultuous relationship’.

But he insisted Clenney was not the aggressor, and accused prosecutors of trying to turn public opinion against the social media influencer.

‘It is inappropriate for prosecutors to try and taint the community against Courtney to the point she may not be able to receive a fair trial,’ Prieto said.

‘The charging decision in this matter should have been made on the evidence of what occurred that evening in the apartment and nothing more.

‘This is a case of self defense and the facts that will be presented at trial will prove this.’

Prieto spoke out after prosecutors released a tranche of evidence they had found to support their case against Clenney.

Footage shows Courtney Clenney, 26, attack Christian Obumseli, 27, two months before she killed him in Miami

She pounded the touch screen before slapping him and pulling his hair as he desperately tried to fend off her blows

She jumped up and grabbed his hair from behind, wrenching his head backwards before punching him in the side of the head

The victim tucked her under his arm and tried to restrain her before pressing the elevator button for their floor

But she continued to launch repeated attacks on him as he tried to block her vicious blows

Clenney kept up her attack even as the doors opened and they spilled out into the corridor while appearing to shout at each other

It included allegations the couple had broken up multiple times between January and the start of April.

She had allegedly kicked him out of their luxury apartment in the last week of March, just days before she killed him.

The documents also told how they would have furious rows when they lived in Austin, Texas, with her allegedly flinging a huge painting from their balcony.

Courtney Clenney is pictured in a police mugshot in Hawaii, where she was staying for rehab

And they appear to dismiss the model’s claim she threw the knife which killed Obumseli across the room from over 10ft away, saying the attack was launched from close proximity.

Clenney was found by police coated in blood in her Miami condo, but was released because it was thought she had acted in self defense.

The new one-minute video shows the couple enter the elevator as Clenney hits the touch screen inside, to chose a floor.

Obumseli appeared to try to calm her down but she turned to him and slapped him and pushed him multiple times.

She jumped up and grabbed his hair from behind, wrenching his head backwards before punching him in the side of the head.

Obumseli tucked her under his arm and tried to restrain her, before pressing the elevator button for their floor.

But she continued to launch repeated attacks on him as he tried to block her blows.

Clenney kept up her attack even as the doors opened and they spilled out into the corridor while appearing to shout at each other.

The footage was disclosed in unsealed documents from Miami-Dade prosecutors as they published their evidence in their murder case against the model.

A search for her exclusive content shows that it is ‘no longer available’ but her Instagram account – with two million followers – remains online

Clenney allegedly stabbed Obumseli (pictured together) to death at their luxury apartment in the One Paraiso building in Edgewater, Miami, on April 3

It outlines the couple’s turbulent relationship, saying they had broken up multiple times since they moved to a 22nd floor condo in Miami in January.

They spoke to witnesses who told how they would loudly row into the night, with so many neighbors complaining about them an eviction notice was sought.

When they broke up in March and Clenney evicted boyfriend from the apartment, Clenney’s mother Deborah came to stay with her.

The couple ‘rekindled their relationship’ on April 1 and he moved back in, but the arrest warrant says ‘arguments began almost immediately’.

Officers were called that same night and Clenney ‘appeared intoxicated’, though no arrests were made.

Two days later – the day Obumseli died – it had ‘began peacefully’, with the couple ‘playing with their dogs at home,’ according to police documents.

Obumseli went to Subway to buy them both sandwiches at 1.15pm and got back at 4.32pm.

Clenney had just posted a new video on Instagram, and prosecutors think the stabbing occurred in the 13 minutes after her boyfriend returned.

Clenney is shown on April 3 after stabbing Obumseli on the balcony of their home 

A search for her OnlyFans account – which was under the name Courtney Tailor – yielded no results while a link on her website forwarded to an unavailable page

Her Instagram account remains active but she has not shared any images on it for 19 weeks

The young couple had recently moved together from Austin, where they met, to Miami

She was thought to have been on the phone to her mom, who said she heard her daughter arguing with Obumseli and claim he was ‘lying’.

The model called police at 4.57pm to report the stabbing, and could be heard saying: ‘I’m so sorry baby.’

The warrant added: ‘On that call, the victim can be heard in the background repeatedly saying he is dying and cannot feel his arm.

‘The amount of blood throughout the condominium at different levels, including two large pools, evidences the victim was bleeding for an extended period before police arrived.’

The document goes on to claim her mother texted her to tell her to mention ‘self-defense’ and ‘advised her to not say anything to investigators without an attorney’.

But Clenney spoke to police, arguing she grabbed the knife because Obumseli pinned her against a wall by her throat.

Detectives pointed out in the document there were no injuries on her and ‘at no time did [she] claim the victim was armed with any type of weapon’.

Chief Medical Examiner Kenneth Hutchins also poured scorn on her claim she had thrown the knife, saying: ‘I do not think that this was… I don’t know.

He added: ‘I really don’t know if this was justified at all.’ 

The knife wound penetrated his chest for eight centimeters and was pointed slightly downwards.

State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said: ‘The violent and toxic two-year relationship of Christian Obumbeli and Courtney Clenney did not have to end in tragedy with Christian’s murder as a victim of domestic violence.’

Chenney is pictured looking disheveled in a 2020 mugshot after she was landed in court for DUI

Meanwhile witnesses revealed how the couple’s time living together in Austin was also turbulent.

Aidan Nevisky, who lived on the floor below them, reported loud arguments erupting frequently a few years ago.

He told the Herald: ‘You could hear her throwing glasses, smashing objects. Everyone on the 10th and 11th floors could hear them. They were not quiet.’

He said in one furious row Clenney appeared to have chucked a huge painting of a tiger off the balcony, which blew on to his below.

Prieto said on Wednesday, when Clenney was arrested: ‘I’m completely shocked, especially since we were cooperating with the investigation and offered to voluntarily surrender her if she were charged.’

He added in a statement: ‘We look forward to clearing her name in court.’

Prieto said that Clenney had been forced to stab Obumseli after he grabbed her by the throat.

The model was later caught on video covered in blood on her high-rise balcony just after the incident.

Clenney was taken into custody under Florida’s Baker Act, which protects people at risk of suicide or mental health crisis, but was freed without charge.

Obumseli’s brother in April was livid she was not being charged, saying it was ‘because of her ‘privilege’ as a ‘wealthy white woman’.

Jeffrey wrote on Instagram the family do not believe Clenney and demanded she be charged with killing the brother he called Toby.

He said: ‘Within 24 hours following Toby’s death, the detective on the case prematurely concluded this was not a crime of violence.’

The victim’s brother also slammed Clenney for videos that emerged following the incident that showed her kissing her dogs and ordering drinks at the hotel bar.

He continued: ‘We’ve seen videos of Courtney kissing her dogs while covered in what we believe to be my brother’s blood and casually getting drinks at a hotel bar days later while my brother lays in the morgue.’

He was referring to videos that show Clenney at Miami’s Grand Beach hotel days after her boyfriend’s death.

Clenney was spotted at a Miami hotel bar days after the killing, trying to have a drink with her father

Clenney and her father were chased out of the bar by the woman who said she had ‘just killed her boyfriend’. Her attorney says they were trying to pick  up a drink and go to the beach 

 

 

 

Obumseli’s family has raised more than $72,000 on a GoFundMe page to help pay for his funeral and to bring his body home to Texas

Her attorney pushed back against this claim saying: ‘The statement about Courtney ‘casually getting drinks’ is absolutely false.

‘Courtney was not ”casually getting drinks at a hotel bar”. Courtney was sitting at an unattended table in the hotel lobby area that also has a bar.’

Prieto added her father was in town and they were having drinks then left because a ‘woman was berating them for no reason’.

Obumseli’s family from Austin, Texas, continues to demand answers. They also raised more than $80,000 via a GoFundMe.

On their page, they say he was the victim of a ‘heinous act of violence.’

It says: ‘Christian Toby Obumseli was murdered in Florida a week before his 28th birthday. It is unconscionable to make sense of our new reality.

‘That someone’s selfish act ripped Christian away from this world. It is not enough to say we are shocked and hurting – we are utterly devastated.

‘His murder leaves many unanswered questions and creates a void that can never be fixed or filled. Not even with time.

‘Christian was extremely compassionate with a desire always to uplift those around him. He did not deserve for his life to be cut short by a heinous act of violence.’

The couple’s friends have given conflicting reports on who was abusive during their turbulent relationship.

Some said they never saw Obumseli being violent with his girlfriend, but they had seen her hit him.

One of the couple’s friends Ashley Vaughn said: ‘We’ve seen her hit him. I’ve never seen him hit her.’

She told Local 10 : ‘From what we’ve personally experienced between the both of them, we believe that Christian wouldn’t put her in a position where she would need to stab him to protect herself.’