Courtney Clenney, 26, claims she killed her boyfriend in self-defense after he attacked her, but prosecutors say video, from two months before, showing the couple fighting in an elevator proves Clenney was the "aggressor" in their relationship.
A popular Instagram model has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, prosecutors said Thursday.
In April, Courtney Clenney, 26, allegedly stabbed Christian Obumseli to death in the Miami apartment they shared.
Clenney claims she killed Obumseli in self-defense after he attacked her, but prosecutors say video showing the couple fighting in an elevator proves Clenney was the aggressor in their relationship.
Prosecutor Katherine Fernandez Rundle played the elevator video, shot two months before Obumseli was killed, while announcing the charge against Clenney at a news conference.
The couple had "a violent and toxic two-year relationship," with arguments so fierce, the building management were planning to evict them, Fernandez Rundle said.
“The video, we felt, was just a very descriptive way to show what the relationship was, and who was the aggressor,” Fernandez Rundle said.
The day Obumseli was killed, it was Clenney who called 911.
“On that 911 call, Christian can be heard in the background repeatedly saying that he was dying. Clenney was also heard saying, ‘I'm so sorry, baby,’” Fernandez Rundle said.
According to the prosecutor, Clenney said she threw the knife at her boyfriend from about 10 feet away, but forensic evidence allegedly shows otherwise.
Clenney was arrested in Hawaii, where her lawyer says she was in rehab for substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder. She was wearing a black tank top and looked tearful at a Thursday hearing to extradite her back to Miami.
Clenney will not fight the extradition.
Her lawyer, Frank Prieto, says there is "clear evidence of self-defense," claiming that Obumseli "attacked her and choked her that evening" and that Clenney "had no choice but to meet force with force."
Prieto also called the elevator video “irrelevant,” because it doesn’t show what happened on the night of the stabbing and said it will likely be inadmissible at the trial.
