A social media model accused of murdering her boyfriend in their luxury Miami apartment has entered a not guilty plea. Courtney Clenney didn’t appear in court Wednesday but her attorney, Frank Prieto, entered the not guilty plea for her.
A social media model accused of murdering her boyfriend in their luxury Miami apartment has entered a not guilty plea.
Courtney Clenney didn't appear in court Wednesday but her attorney, Frank Prieto, entered the not guilty plea for her.
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"We are going to mount a vigorous defense in her favor and we will show that she was a victim of domestic violence," Prieto told reporters after Wednesday's brief hearing.
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Clenney, 26, faces a second-degree murder charge in the April 3 killing of her boyfriend, 27-year-old Christian Obumseli.
Clenney was arrested in Hawaii earlier this month and was extradited to Miami-Dade County last week. She remains behind bars without bond.
Authorities said Clenney - who went by the name Courtney Tailor on social media including OnlyFans and Instagram, where she has more than 2 million followers - fatally stabbed Obumseli in the apartment they shared in the luxury One Paraiso condo building in Edgewater.
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The couple, who had moved to South Florida from Texas in January 2022, had been "involved in an extremely tempestuous and combative relationship" since November 2020, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said at a news conference earlier this month.
Fernandez Rundle said Obumseli had been a victim of domestic violence before Clenney fatally stabbed him.
But Prieto has said Clenney was the victim of abuse and said the stabbing was an act of self-defense.
Fernandez Rundle said Clenney admitted to police to having caused the three-inch stab wound to Obumseli's chest, but gave inconsistent accounts about the incident.
Clenney told investigators that Obumseli shoved her against a wall by her neck, then threw her to the ground and when he allowed her to get up, she grabbed a knife from a kitchen, Fernandez Rundle said.
She said that as Obumseli started coming toward her, she threw the knife at him from about 10 feet, Fernandez Rundle said.
But the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner determined that the knife came at a downward angle, and said that throwing it wouldn't have caused the fatal wound, Fernandez Rundle said.
In a statement after Clenney's arrest, Prieto said the medical examiner "has formulated conclusory opinions that will not stand up to scientific scrutiny," and said the arrest warrant "contains deceptive and incomplete statements."
