The OnlyFans star accused of killing her boyfriend was denied bond on in her first court appearance since being extradited from Hawaii to Florida.
Courtney Clenney, 26, was returned to prison after her Miami-Dade hearing on Saturday. She faces second-degree murder charges for fatally stabbing her boyfriend Christian Obumseli, 27, in the chest while the two argued on April 3.
Clenney has claimed the stabbing took place in self defense, and her attorney Frank Prieto argued she should receive manslaughter charges and be offered bond, according to CBS Miami.
‘I feel it’s important that the court be made aware that that warrant that judge signed that he did find probable cause however,’ Prieto said, ‘There’s not probable cause for second-degree murder… at best it’s manslaughter.’
But Judge Jacqueline Woodward said she was not familiar enough with the case to make a ruling, and that doing so could be unfair to Clenney. In abstaining from making a decision, Clenney’s murder charges and lack of bond remained unchanged. Her next scheduled court appearance is her September 6 arraignment.
Courtney Clenney, 26, was returned to prison after her Miami-Dade hearing on Saturday. She faces second-degree murder charges for fatally stabbing her boyfriend Christian Obumseli, 27, in the chest while the two argued on April 3
Christian Obumseli (above) was stabbed to death on April 3 in the Miami apartment he shared with Clenney
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.
Until her arrest earlier this month she has been on Hawaii’s Big Island where she was being treated for substance abuse and PTSD.
Clenney is shown on April 3rd after allegedly stabbing Obumseli on the balcony of their home. She is covered in blood as her dog looks at her
Frank Prieto, Clenney’s attorney, suggest that she is innocent and acted in self defense after her boyfriend grabbed her by the throat
Miami Attorney Katherine Fernandez debunked Clenney’s claim that she stabbed him from a distance after an autopsy revealed otherwise
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
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
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.
Staff and residents at the One Paraiso building where they lived reported multiple domestic disturbance complaints about the couple
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.’
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
Jeffrey Obumseli, the brother of slain Christian Tobechukwu ‘Toby’ Obumseli, claimed in April that the victim’s OnlyFans girlfriend was not charged in his death because of her ‘privilege’ as a ‘wealthy white woman’ and not because of her self-defense claim
In a statement posted to Instagram in April, the victim’s brother, Jeffrey Obumseli – and his family – wrote that they do not believer Clenney and demand that she be charged with his murder
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?’