There’s a particular story that’s gripped the internet for almost two years now and it’s one that still baffles people to this day. The woman at the centre of it? An OnlyFans model called Courtney Clenney, also known as Courtney Tailor on social media.The 27-year-old gained widespread attention when she was accused of stabbing her boyfriend Christian Toby Obumseli to death in their Miami apartment in April 2022.
View this post on Instagram
The renewed interest in the story comes from the fact that Clenney’s parents were charged on 30 January 2024 with one count of unauthorised access of a computer, computer system, or electronic device belonging to Obumseli.
So, following two years of court appearances and wild conspiracy theories, let’s delve into who exactly Clenney is and what the charges are against her.
Christian Obumseli was found dead from a stab wound in April 2022 and his death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner. Clenney immediately became the prime suspect. Soon after this, the influencer, who has roughly 2 million followers on Instagram, claimed that she was a “victim of domestic violence” and acted in self-defence.
“This is a tragedy for all involved, but it was not criminal conduct,” Clenney’s lawyer Frank Prieto stated, as reported by Rolling Stone. at the time. Nevertheless, the victim’s friends and family denied Clenney’s version of the story. They confirmed that the relationship was abusive, but identified her as the aggressor.
In August 2022, the Hawai‘i Police Department said that had arrested Clenney for the murder of Obumseli. Subsequent to her arrest, she was brought to the department’s detention centre pending her initial court appearance in Hilo District Court. Clenney had been in rehab in Hawaii for post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse.
The police stated that they spent the four months between the murder and the arrest building a case against the influencer. Nevertheless, Obumseli’s family believed Clenney was receiving special treatment as a white woman who had killed a Black man. “We believe it is white privilege because any other person would’ve been arrested,” their family lawyer said in April.
After the model’s arrest in Hawaii, Clenney was extradited to Miami and jailed on a second-degree murder charge.
Nevertheless, Clenney and her lawyer continue to argue that Obumseli’s death occurred in an act of self-defence. “Obumseli attacked her and choked her that evening; Courtney had no choice but to meet force with force,” Prieto told Rolling Stone via email. “We have cooperated with the investigation from the beginning. We have always offered to self-surrender if charges were filed in an effort to begin the legal process of clearing her of the charges.”
A judge denied Clenney’s bond in December 2022 hearing after prosecutors argued the money she had earned from her OnlyFans account made her a flight risk. In 2020 and 2021 combined, Clenney made nearly $3 million. The influencer has since pleaded“not guilty” and is currently awaiting trial.
On Tuesday 30 January, the OnlyFan model’s parents Deborah and Kim Clenney were arrested for tampering with evidence. CBS News reported that Clenney’s father allegedly found Obumseli’s laptop while cleaning out the apartment and did not hand it over to police.
Apparently, Clenney then gave her father the password, but he only found crypto exchange on the hard drive.
At the moment, the state attorney is assuming that Obumseli was a victim of domestic violence that stretched back as far as the beginning of his relationship with Clenney in November 2020. Moreover, the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office recently released footage that showed Clenney hitting Obumseli over a dozen times during a trip to Colorado.
As part of her murder-trial defence, Clenney claimed that Obumseli had pushed her against a wall, choking her, but the prosecutor revealed there were no marks on Clenney that would prove this happened.
It’s likely that we will continue to find out more shocking revelations from this extremely tragic case.