MIAMI — Before he was stabbed to death by his OnlyFans model girlfriend in Miami, Christian “Toby” Obumseli chronicled their arguments in a series of disturbing phone recordings that included racial slurs and her angrily screaming, berating and cursing him out in private and in public.
The apparently secret recordings, now in evidence in the murder case against Courtney Clenney, offer a revealing window into their deeply toxic relationship — and could one day be presented to a jury to depict her as a domestic abuser who ultimately plunged a knife into the chest of her boyfriend inside their luxury Miami apartment.
There is little actual video, with the cellphone apparently hidden in a pocket. But the audio is clear and painful to hear. In many of the recordings, Obumseli is repeatedly apologizing. In one recording, Clenney appears to be enraged because he didn’t tell her that he said hello to a female acquaintance while on a bicycle ride. Clenney calls him the n-word multiple times, and tells him to “man up b----” and tells him to “shut up and let me slap you, dumb a—!”
In the recording, she hollers and wails at the top of her lungs, repeatedly ordering him to find her phone. “Find my f---ing phone and charge it!” she yells.
Clenney, 26, remains jailed on a second-degree murder charge since her arrest for the April 3 killing of Obumseli, 27. Clenney had millions of followers on Instagram and OnlyFans, a site where models are often paid for racy or explicit content.
Her defense attorneys have insisted Clenney, not Obumseli, was the victim. Lawyer Sabrina Puglisi last month said Clenney would often “protect” “Obumseli over fears that “as a Black man, (he) could be hurt or harmed if he was ever arrested by the police.”
On Tuesday, lead attorney Frank Prieto declined to comment on the recordings, for now, because he had not listened to them.
It’s unclear if Clenney knew she was being recorded and it appears the phone was likely in Obumseli’s pocket during the encounters. The video clips on his phone were recovered by Miami police investigators as part of the homicide probe. The Herald obtained them from the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office through a public-records request.
“I found the audio to be shocking,” said attorney Larry Handfield, who represents Obumseli’s family. “I know it’s going to be very, very painful when (his relatives) hear this ... I see it as a consistent pattern with someone who is unhinged and out of control. She is the aggressor and abuser in this whole relationship.”
The sensational murder case — featuring a white female social-media influencer killing her boyfriend, a young Black professional — has garnered international media attention. The case is also a twist on the vast majority of domestic violence cases, with prosecutors casting Obumseli as the long-suffering male victim of Clenney, while her defense attorneys insist he was the aggressor and she stabbed him in self-defense.
Prosecutors have painted Clenney as the primary aggressor throughout their stormy relationship, even playing an elevator surveillance video from months before the killing showing her attacking Obumseli inside an elevator at their apartment. Her defense lawyers have said the video lacks context and shows Clenney trying to get away from her boyfriend.
“The violent and toxic two-year relationship of Christian Obumseli and Courtney Clenney did not have to end in tragedy with Christian’s murder as a victim of domestic violence,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said at a press conference soon after her arrest in August.
Prosecutors have also released police body-camera footage of Clenney, less than 48 hours before the killing, in the lobby of the building after police officers were called over the ongoing domestic strife. In the video, she’s shown asking police to get a restraining order against Obumseli, claiming he was stalking her (she later emailed the building downplaying the incident).
“It’s very clear from the video she looks upset. She’s emotional. She’s crying. She’s upset that she can’t even walk her dogs all day for fear of being followed by Obumseli,” Puglisi told the Herald last month.
The video recordings by Obumseli were discovered on his iPhone — and hint at violence by the model.
One recording shows the couple arguing in the lobby at the luxury One Paraiso apartment in Edgewater, where Clenney was seated. “Decide if you’re done gaslighting me,” Clenney repeatedly says. “Decide right now.”
“Courtney, that’s a f---ing threat. I asked you something ... and I apologized but you hit me,” Obumseli says.
Clenney responds in a firm whisper: “Shut the f--- up b----.”
In another recording, in which nothing can be seen, Clenney had apparently jumped out of their car during an argument. Amid car honking, Obumseli pleads with her to get back in the vehicle.
The audio captures her talking to a concerned male passerby, who describes her “banging” her head and tries to calm her down as Obumseli apologizes. Clenney explains the reason for the fight: In traffic, she got into an argument with a motorist in another car. “So I opened the door and I got out and I f---ing hit him,” she explains.
“And then (Obumseli says), ‘Go apologize to that man,’” Clenney cries. “I feel like I don’t have anywhere to go but my head.”
Clenney yells and curses at Obumseli in front of the passerby, as he and the other man try to calm her down. “F---you! No, you make yourself look good in front of people!” she yells.
“I’m sorry ... it’s my fault,” Obumseli says.
“He said it’s his fault,” the passerby says.
Later in the recording, Obumseli continues apologizing as Clenney continues cursing. “You just told me to f---ing apologize to a lowlife! You’re supposed to protect me!” she yells. “F--- you!”
Moments later, the sounds of slaps are heard as they get back to their car. “Stop hitting me!” Obumseli says.
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