MIAMI – After prosecutors announced a murder charge against the model who stabbed her boyfriend in a Miami apartment, her attorney reiterated on Thursday that she did so in self-defense.
Frank Prieto, a Coral Gables defense attorney, is representing Courtney Clenney, who is better known as Courtney Tailor on Instagram and OnlyFans. She was arrested on Hawaii’s Big Island on Wednesday and was awaiting extradition.
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle said Clenney killed her live-in boyfriend Christian “Toby” Obumseli on April 3 after a “tempestuous and combative relationship” that began in 2020.
Obumseli was a cryptocurrency executive. He was 27.
“Obumseli was the abuser, the worst kind of abuser. He would manipulate and abuse Courtney in private when he thought nobody was around,” Prieto said in a statement later adding, “She will be exonerated, and Courtney will be seen for what she is: a victim of domestic abuse that survived her abuser.”
Fernandez-Rundle said Clenney, 26, was the aggressor and released a surveillance video showing Clenney hitting Obumseli inside the elevator of the building where the two lived near Biscayne Bay.
Prieto said the video recorded weeks before the stabbing was “irrelevant,” and the arrest warrant had incomplete statements. He also accused prosecutors of seeking to win the case in the court of public opinion.
“Do not forget that the initial investigation from the City of Miami Police Department uncovered an independent witness who saw Obumseli hitting Courtney in the head,” Prieto said.
There was a history of domestic violence in Texas and Nevada before the stabbing in the apartment the two shared at the One Paraiso building, at 650 NE 32 St.
Clenney called 911 to report Obumseli was injured. The audio revealed she said, “I am sorry baby.” Clenney told officers she threw a kitchen knife at him, but the medical examiner reported he died from a downward strike with a knife into his chest.
“The medical examiner has formulated conclusory opinions that will not stand up to scientific scrutiny,” Prieto said.
A few days after the fatal stabbing, Obumseli’s brother Jeffrey Obumseli stood in front of the State Attorney’s Office demanding that prosecutors charge Clenney with murder because his brother was not the abuser in the relationship.
Clenney is facing a second-degree murder charge.