Courtney Clenney video: A video emerged on Twitter shows Courtney Clenney beating her boyfriend, she killed later, in elevator. Courtney Clenney is an Instagram model who has been charged with murder of her boyfriend, Christian Obumseli.
Instagram model Courtney Clenney was captured on a CCTV camera video, installed in the elevator, assaulting Christian Obumseli in the elevator of their luxury Miami apartment building just two months before she fatally stabbed him with a kitchen knife, authorities said Thursday.
Miami State Attorney Kathie Fernandez Rundle played the video at a press conference when she announced a second-degree murder charge against 26-year-old Clenney.
“The defendant was aggressively attacking Christian,” Rundle said of the Feb. 21 footage that shows Clenney in a white bra and pajama pants smashing elevator buttons before turning her rage on Obumseli.
Rundle, describing the couple’s two-year romance as “extremely tempestuous and combative,” shared a detailed timeline leading up to the fatal attack when Clenney allegedly plunged a kitchen knife 3 ½ inches into Obumseli’s chest April 3, puncturing his subclavian artery.
Rundle, flanked by Obumseli’s brother and cousin, said that the pair’s violent and toxic relationship “did not have to end in tragedy with Christian’s murder as a victim of domestic violence.”
Clenney, who goes by Courtney Tailor on social media, was arrested Wednesday in Hawaii and is awaiting extradition to Florida.
Also, Watch Desiree Montoya and Dami Elmoreno video
The second-degree murder charge against the Courtney comes after the victims’ family expressed outrage she had not been charged after claiming she had acted in self-defense. Rundle said the evidence undermined her claims that Obumseli was the aggressor.
She told police that she had thrown the knife from 10 feet away – but the medical examiner determined that tossing the weapon from this distance could not have caused the fatal stab wound, according to authorities.
Investigators said the stabbing occurred when Clenney was on the phone with her mother, Deborah Clenney, between 4:43 p.m. and 4:56 p.m.
During the same time period, neighbors began calling building staff to report a disturbance, the arrest affidavit says.
Clenney called 911 and Obumseli can be heard in the background saying that he is dying and losing feeling in his arm, Rundle said.
“Defendant Clenney is also heard saying, ‘I’m sorry, baby,'” according to an arrest affidavit.
At 5:25 p.m., her mother sent her a text mentioning “self-defense” and telling her “not to say anything to investigators without an attorney,” according to police.
It’s unclear what sparked the argument – but the day had begun peacefully with the couple playing with their dogs, authorities said.
The pair moved into the high-rise apartment in January but fought so frequently that building staff had documented numerous domestic incidents and management was planning to evict them, the affidavit states.
Clenney had a pattern of attacking her beau. In July 2021, she was arrested in Las Vegas for domestic battery in their hotel, officials said.
The pair had broken up in March but reconciled April 1 – just two days before the fatal confrontation.
Hawaii County police assisted the U.S. Marshals Service with the arrest on the Big Island, where the influencer was in a rehabilitation facility for substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to her attorney Frank Prieto.
“I’m completely shocked, especially since we were cooperating with the investigation and offered to voluntarily surrender her if she were charged,” Prieto told Fox News Digital.
“We look forward to clearing her name in court.”
Instagram model Courtney Clenney charged with murdering her boyfriend in Florida apartment
Social media model Courtney Clenney has been charged with second-degree murder over the April death of her boyfriend, Christian Toby Obumseli, Miami State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Thursday. Clenney, 26, was arrested in Hawaii on Wednesday on a charge of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon.
On the day of Obumseli’s death, he left the apartment at 1:15 p.m. and returned at 4:33 p.m. with sandwiches for the pair, Rundle said. Clenney called her mother at 4:43 and spoke for six minutes, and called her again at 4:49 and spoke for seven minutes, Rundle said. At 4:57, she called 911 to report that Obumseli had been stabbed. During that time, neighbors called the building about a disturbance and security also called 911, Rundle said.
Rundle said Obumseli can be heard saying that he was dying and losing feeling in his arm on her 911 call, and that Clenney was heard saying “I’m so sorry.” When police arrived, Clenney was cradling Obumseli’s body, according to her arrest warrant. He later died of his injuries at the hospital.
Clenney later told police she had stabbed Obumseli after he grabbed her by the throat and shoved her against the wall, Rundle said. She allegedly said she ran to the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and threw it at him from about 10 feet away.
But Rundle said police did not find any evidence that Clenney had been harmed and said the medical examiner disputed her account of the incident, noting that Obumseli’s injury was much more consistent with a “downward strike” with the knife than with a throw from such a far distance.
Rundle said the chief medical examiner for Miami-Dade County determined that Obumseli was killed by a three-inch deep stab wound to the chest.
“The violent and toxic two-year relationship of Christian Obumseli and Courtney Clenney did not have to end in tragedy with Christian’s murder as a victim of domestic violence,” Rundle said.
In a recorded telephone statement to police documented in the arrest warrant, Clenney’s mother allegedly told authorities that she heard Clenney telling Obumseli to leave and Clenney saying that Obumseli was “lying.” Her mother did not say anything about her daughter being attacked, the warrant said, and while she allegedly told investigators that she had not discussed Obumseli’s death with her daughter, the warrant cited a 5:25 p.m. text message from “mom” on the defendant’s phone that mentioned “self-defense” and told her not to speak with investigators without an attorney.
An attorney for Obumseli’s family said at the press conference the family “always believed that with a thorough and fair investigation, this day would come to reality.”
When asked why it took so long to press charges over the April incident, Miami police chief Manuel Morales said it was critical to ensure the charge would stand up in court.
“You only get one shot,” he told reporters. “You want to get it right.”
Hawaii County police said in a prior statement they assisted the U.S. Marshals Service as they arrested Clenney in Laupahoehoe, which is on the Big Island. Officers used an arrest warrant issued by Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Clenney was being held at the East Hawaii Detention Center while she waits for her initial court appearance in Hilo District Court on Thursday, police said Wednesday. Rundle said Clenney had not yet appeared in court, where she will decide whether to waive or contest extradition back to Florida.
Clenney uses the name Courtney Tailor on Instagram and OnlyFans, where she has more than 2 million followers.
Her Miami defense lawyer, Frank Prieto, told NewPakWeb Miami that she was in Hawaii while in rehabilitation for substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I’m completely shocked, especially since we were cooperating with the investigation and offered to voluntarily surrender her if she were charged,” Prieto said before the Thursday press conference. “We look forward to clearing her name in court.”
Prieto said the two were together for about two years and their relationship was complicated.
“It was clearly a toxic relationship, (they) had their ups and downs and, unfortunately, it culminated with his death,” he said.
Prieto said Clenney was actively seeking professional help to process the trauma experienced on the night of the stabbing.
Obumseli’s family said that he was a soft-spoken man and the idea that this was warranted is unthinkable, CBS Miami reported.
“We have no cause to believe that this was a case of self-defense. Toby was raised with a, by a very strong family with strong morals, strong values, he does not come from that,” said Karen Egbuna, a cousin of Obumseli who also appeared at the press conference.