OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney pleads not guilty to murder of boyfriend Christian ‘Toby’ Obumseli
OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney pleaded not guilty on Wednesday through her lawyer to the second-degree murder of her boyfriend Christian ‘Toby’ Obumseli months after he was stabbed to death in their Florida home.
Clenney was not present for the brief two-minute hearing before Florida Judge Diana Vizcaino in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. She remains jailed at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami after being extradited from Hawaii.
The former OnlyFans model made her plea through her attorney Frank Prieto.
‘We’ll stand on our written pleadings to not guilty your honor,’ Prieto told the court.
Prieto has promised in a filing statement to the court that they will ‘mount a vigorous defense in her favor.’
Clenney was formally charged in the April 3 slaying five days after she arrived in Miami-Dade after being extradited from Hawaii, where she was arrested earlier this month where she was in rehab for substance abuse.
Her next scheduled court appearance is September 6.
Courtney Clenney, 26, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday through her lawyer to the second-degree murder of her boyfriend Christian ‘Toby’ Obumseli months after he was stabbed to death in their Florida home on April 3. She was not in court on Wednesday
Christian Obumseli (above) was stabbed to death on April 3 in the Miami apartment he shared with Clenney
Clenney, who goes by the name Courtney Tailor online and has millions of social media followers, is accused of fatally stabbing her boyfriend Christian ‘Toby’ Obumseli on April 3 during a heated argument at their luxury high-rise Miami apartment.
Prosecutors say Clenney is the culprit, arguing she had a long history of attacking Obumseli, who was unarmed at the time of his killing.
But her attorneys say she is the victim of domestic abuse and argue that she acted in self-defense.
The defense is still seeking to limit the release of evidence in the case and have said they are worried about ‘adult’ photos and videos that might be part of the prosecutor’s case, the Miami Herald reported.
‘It is anticipated that most, if not all of the adult content and sexually explicit materials are irrelevant to the State’s case-in-chief,’ Prieto wrote in a filing to the court.
‘Courtney Clenney should be judged by the admissible evidence (subject to judicial scrutiny) and not on her lifestyle choices.’
To bolster her self-defense story, Clenney’s attorney previously asked that Obumseli’s corpse be dug up and inspected by a medical examiner.
Miami Attorney Katherine Fernandez said Clenney claimed to have stabbed Obumseli in the chest after he grabbed her by the throat at their luxury apartment in the One Paraiso building in Edgewater, Miami in April, according to the Miami Herald.
Clenney said she threw the knife at her boyfriend from more than 10 feet away, but Fernandez said the autopsy revealed a deep wound that could only be done at a close distance.
The OnlyFans model was temporarily arrested after cops found her coated in blood on her balcony, but was later released because they believed she had acted in self-defense.
Frank Prieto, Clenney’s attorney, suggest that she is innocent and acted in self defense after her boyfriend grabbed her by the throat
Staff and residents at the One Paraiso building where they lived in Miami reported multiple domestic disturbance complaints about the couple
Obumseli’s body was buried in Texas following his death. The 27-year-old’s family attorney, Larry Handfield, said the effort from Clenney’s attorney is ‘an act of desperation,’ and to dig up the body would go against the family’s religious values.
Prieto also asked to halt the release of evidence against Clenney without the judge’s first initial inspection of the material.
The motion came after the release of elevator footage from the couple’s Miami apartment that showed the model viciously punch and kick Obumseli two months before his death.
In the footage Clenney could be seen slapping and pulling Obumseli’s hair as he desperately tried to fend off her blows.
The horrific footage shows Courtney Clenney, 26, launch a blistering attack on Christian Obumseli, 27, two months before she killed him in Miami
She jumped up and grabbed his hair from behind, wrenching his head backwards before punching him in the side of the head
Clenney and Obumseli had been dating less than two years, and their relationship was tumultuous.
She was arrested for domestic battery in Las Vegas, and police were called to their home in Austin, Texas, on several occasions.
The pair moved to Miami at the beginning of the year and staff and residents at the One Paraiso building where they lived reported multiple domestic disturbance complaints about the couple, and had even moved to evict them.
Clenney and her attorney’s claim she was forced to stab Obumseli after he grabbed her by the throat on April 3.
Obumseli’s brother in April was angered by her not being charged immediately over his death, saying it was ‘because of her ‘privilege’ as a ‘wealthy white woman’ and not because of her self-defense claim.
But in a statement posted to Instagram, the victim’s brother, Jeffrey Obumseli – and his family – wrote that they do not believe Clenney and demand that she be charged with killing the brother he called Toby.
The model was caught on video covered with blood on her high-rise balcony just after the killing.
‘The bottom line is inextricably clear: Courtney is being treated differently because of her privilege as a wealthy White woman,’ Jeffrey Obumseli wrote on Instagram.
‘Within 24 hours following Toby’s death, the detective on the case prematurely concluded this was not a crime of violence.’
Clenney is shown on April 3 after allegedly stabbing Obumseli on the balcony of their home. She is covered in blood as her dog looks at her
The 27-year-old’s family attorney, Larry Handfield, says the effort for Clenney’s attorney to request his body to be dug up is ‘an act of desperation,’ and to do so would go against the family’s religious values
Obumseli’s family from Austin, Texas, continues to demand answers. His family is raising money for him on GoFundMe.
On their page, they say he was the victim of a ‘heinous act of violence.’
‘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,’ it reads.
Clenney said she threw the knife at her boyfriend from more than 10 feet away, but Fernandez said the autopsy revealed a deep wound that could only be done at a close distance
Throughout the investigation, Clenney was posting X-rated content on her OnlyFans page since allegedly killing her boyfriend.
X-rated content had appeared on her site a day after she killed Obumseli but it is unclear if it had been scheduled to go live before the incident.
Nearly a day after her arrest, Clenney’s page was taken down.
Her Instagram account remains active but she has not shared any images for 19 weeks.
The last post showed her in a skimpy pink dress in Miami with the caption: ‘My face thinking about a fresh set of talons… what color should I get?’
