Courtney Clenney: Self-Defense Claim, Parents Charged, and Lawsuit

The Courtney Clenney case is a Miami second-degree murder prosecution against the 29-year-old OnlyFans model, who is accused of fatally stabbing her boyfriend Christian “Toby” Obumseli on April 3, 2022, at their Edgewater high-rise apartment. Clenney has pleaded not guilty and says she acted in self-defense. She has been held without bond since her August 2022 arrest in Hawaii, and after repeated delays her trial is now expected to begin in the summer of 2026.¹

What Happened on April 3, 2022

Emergency responders were called that afternoon to Unit 2201 on the 22nd floor of One Paraiso, a luxury tower in Edgewater, Miami. Obumseli, 27, had been stabbed once in the chest with a kitchen knife. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.

The Miami-Dade County medical examiner determined that the knife punctured the subclavian artery on the right side of Obumseli’s chest, penetrating roughly three and a quarter inches deep.² The examiner described the wound as consistent with a “forceful downward thrust” and testified it could not have been caused by a knife thrown from a distance.³ That finding matters because it directly contradicts the defense’s account of the killing.

A 911 recording captured Clenney saying, “My boyfriend is dying of a stab wound!” and “Baby, I’m so sorry!” Obumseli is heard saying, “I can’t feel my arm. I can’t feel my arm.”⁴ Body camera footage from arriving officers shows Clenney in handcuffs, distraught and covered in blood, repeatedly asking about Obumseli’s condition.⁵ Crime scene photographs later released by authorities showed pools of blood throughout the condo and a trail leading to the elevator.⁶

Self-Defense or Murder

The central question for a jury will be who was the aggressor. Both sides agree the relationship was volatile. They disagree about everything else.

The Defense

Clenney’s attorneys, Frank Prieto and Sabrina Puglisi, say she was a domestic abuse victim who acted in self-defense. According to the defense, Obumseli charged at her during an argument and she threw a kitchen knife at him from roughly ten feet away.⁷ Her lawyers allege Obumseli choked her and threw her to the ground on prior occasions, and they point to body camera footage in which a neighbor told police Obumseli had been assaulting Clenney on a balcony the day before the stabbing. At later proceedings, the defense also raised battered women’s syndrome.⁸ Photos released later by prosecutors showed bruises on Clenney’s body; the defense said Clenney’s mother took them a few days after the killing to support the self-defense claim.⁹

The Prosecution

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office contends Clenney was the aggressor throughout the relationship. State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said the evidence depicted Clenney as the violent partner.¹⁰ Investigators said Clenney gave “several inconsistent accounts” to law enforcement.¹¹ The medical examiner’s downward-thrust finding is central to the state’s theory. Prosecutors also point to a secret audio recording in which Clenney tells Obumseli, “Shut up and let me slap you.”¹²

In December 2022, Circuit Judge Laura Shearon Cruz denied Clenney’s request for release on bond, finding the self-defense claim did not “render doubtful” the state’s evidence.¹³

The Relationship’s Documented History

Prosecutors have called the relationship “extremely tempestuous and combative.” The couple moved into One Paraiso in January 2022, and according to the State Attorney’s Office, building staff quickly began documenting loud arguments. Neighbor complaints were so frequent that management was pursuing eviction in the weeks before Obumseli’s death.¹⁴ An arrest warrant noted that Clenney had been arrested in Las Vegas in July 2021 for domestic battery against Obumseli.

On February 21, 2022, building surveillance cameras captured a 66-second elevator encounter in which Clenney is seen striking Obumseli and pulling his hair.¹¹¹⁵¹⁶

On April 1, 2022, two days before the stabbing, officers responded to a domestic call at the apartment. Body camera footage shows Clenney in the lobby telling officers she had broken up with Obumseli, that he had been “stalking her,” and asking how to get a restraining order. She told officers, “I have not always been a victim, but like right now I am the victim in this situation.” Officers said they could not issue a trespassing warning because Obumseli legally lived in the unit. A building manager told officers Obumseli had “charged” at Clenney in the entrance before police arrived; Clenney contested that description in an email the next day, saying she had merely put her hand up to ask him to leave her alone.⁴

Arrest and the Four-Month Delay

Clenney was not arrested immediately. She was taken into custody four months after the killing, on August 10, 2022, in Laupahoehoe, Hawaii, by the U.S. Marshals Service with help from the Hawai’i Police Department.¹⁷ According to Prieto, she was in Hawaii receiving treatment for substance abuse and PTSD, and he said he had offered to surrender her voluntarily if charges were filed.¹⁸ She was extradited to Miami-Dade County and has remained in custody since.

The Privilege Fight That Delayed the Trial

Much of the pretrial period has been consumed by a dispute over prosecutors’ access to communications between Clenney’s family and their attorneys. The State Attorney’s Office obtained data from the iCloud account of Clenney’s father, Kim Dewayne Clenney, through a search warrant. Among the materials were messages with defense lawyers, a document titled “Courtney Checklist of Things to Do—Privileged.docx,” and a group text thread called “Team Courtney.”¹⁹

In June 2024, Judge Cruz ruled that prosecutors had violated attorney-client privilege and ordered the communications excluded.²⁰ The lead prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney Khalil Quinan, withdrew from the case in March 2025 after a judge ruled he could be deposed about his access to the privileged materials. The defense then moved to disqualify the entire State Attorney’s Office, alleging “vindictive prosecution.” As of May 2025, that motion remained pending.²¹

Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson, who took over the case, called the original search warrant “overbroad” and restricted prosecutors to viewing data only from April 2021 through Clenney’s August 2022 arrest date.²² Wolfson denied defense motions to dismiss the charges and to release Clenney on bond, and initially set a trial date of April 27, 2026.²³ That date was later postponed after roughly 15 to 16 “Williams rule” witnesses failed to appear for depositions and both sides jointly moved for a continuance. Wolfson granted what she called a “final continuance,” with the parties aiming for August 2026.¹

Charges Against Clenney’s Parents

In January 2024, Clenney’s parents, Kim Dewayne Clenney and Deborah Clenney, were arrested on charges of unauthorized access to a computer, a Florida third-degree felony, for allegedly breaking into Obumseli’s laptop.²⁴ They were booked in Travis County, Texas, pending extradition. The laptop-related charges were dropped in July 2024, following Judge Cruz’s privilege ruling.²⁵ The parents later sought return of their digital data held by the court; Judge Cruz denied that request in September 2024, and their attorney said he planned to appeal.

The Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Obumseli’s father, Chio Obumseli, filed a wrongful death lawsuit on March 17, 2023, in Miami-Dade County Court. The suit names Clenney, along with the owners of One Paraiso, security company Allied Universal Security Services, and property management firms Aleros Real Estate and First Service Residential. It alleges Clenney intentionally stabbed Obumseli and that building owners and management failed to maintain a safe environment despite a “documented pattern of violence.”²⁶ The family’s attorney, Michael Haggard, cited at least six police calls to the couple’s unit and internal incident reports, saying, “This was a murder that the civil defendants knew was going to happen.”²⁷

Where the Case Stands

Clenney remains in a Miami-Dade County jail, where she has been held for more than three years without bond. She had roughly two million Instagram followers as “Courtney Tailor” at the time of the killing and said in a podcast recorded weeks earlier that she earned a six-figure monthly income from OnlyFans.¹¹ The pending motion to disqualify the State Attorney’s Office, the continuing appeal over the parents’ digital data, and the wrongful death lawsuit all remain open. The murder trial is expected to begin in the summer of 2026.¹

1
Court TV. Courtney Clenney’s Murder Trial Delayed Until Summer
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Newsweek. Courtney Clenney OnlyFans Model Murder Trial Update
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ABC News. Instagram Personality Charged With Murder Months After Allegedly Fatally Stabbing Boyfriend
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Miami Herald. Courtney Clenney Police Bodycam Footage
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KFOX TV. New Photos Show Graphic Miami Crime Scene
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Court TV. Clenney’s Attorneys Claim Abuse by Christian Obumseli
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Miami Herald. Courtney Clenney Murder Trial Date Set
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Fox 13 Memphis. OnlyFans Model History of Violence Led to Arrest, Prosecutors Say
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E! Online. Inside the Polarizing Murder Case Against OnlyFans Model Courtney Clenney
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CBS News. New Video Emerges in Evidence Against OnlyFans Model Courtney Clenney
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Local 10. Judge Denies Request for OnlyFans Model Courtney Clenney Release
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NBC Miami. Tempestuous Relationship Led to Fatal Miami Stabbing by OnlyFans Model, State Attorney
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Court TV. New Video Shows Courtney Clenney Fighting Boyfriend Before Murder
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WSVN. Newly Obtained Video Shows Social Media Influencer Charged in Boyfriend’s Murder Hitting Him in Colorado
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Hawaii Police Department. Social Media Model Courtney Clenney Arrested
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Miami Herald. Courtney Clenney Arrested in Hawaii
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Court TV. Clenney Lawyers Say State Destroyed Evidence, Failed to Disclose Witness
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NBC Miami. Judge Rules Miami-Dade Prosecutors Violated OnlyFans Model’s Attorney-Client Privilege
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Miami Herald. Courtney Clenney Disqualification Hearing
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Court TV. Frustrated Judge Tells Clenney Attorneys the Case Won’t Be a Telenovela
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Court TV. New Trial Date but No Bond for OnlyFans Model Courtney Clenney
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NBC News. Parents of OnlyFans Model Arrested for Alleged Evidence Tampering
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NBC Miami. OnlyFans Model Accused of Killing Boyfriend Back in Court Along With Parents After Laptop Charges Dropped
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Oxygen. Christian Obumseli’s Family Sues OnlyFans Model Courtney Clenney
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NBC Miami. Family of Slain Boyfriend of Miami OnlyFans Model Files Wrongful Death Suit