Over a year before Courtney Clenney killed her boyfriend during a domestic dispute, Christian Obumseli sent her a text message claiming she had stabbed him so badly in the leg that he couldn’t walk.
The next day, the 27-year-old Black man sent his girlfriend, an OnlyFans influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers, another damning text message alleging that he had been hit in the head so many times during an argument—and with such force—that he felt like he sustained a concussion.
Despite these documented instances of the relationship going sideways, the couple stayed together, with Obumseli sometimes even offering an apology—including after the 26-year-old white woman he was dating uttered a racial slur.
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“Is love going to kill me?” Obumseli texted Clenney on Feb. 28, 2022, according to messages obtained by The Daily Beast and first reported by the Miami Herald. “February was the worst month I had so far. I got cheated on. I got called that word again. I got slapped in my stitches that has [sic] re-opened multiple times and it’s not healing fast enough. I’ve gotten kicked out.”
The Miami State Attorney’s Office alleges that about a month after Obumseli sent Clenney that text, the model stabbed her boyfriend in the heart during an argument inside their 22nd-floor condo at the One Paraiso.
At the time of the April 3 incident, Clenney told a 911 operator that Obumseli “has a stab wound on his shoulder.” During a police interview, she told cops she had thrown a knife at her boyfriend from at least 10 feet away. A medical examiner would later conclude that Obumseli suffered a “stab wound to the chest… and that the knife punctured the subclavian artery.”
Clenney has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Miami, where she awaits trial. Her lawyers, who have maintained that she is a victim of domestic abuse, claim that the killing was an act of self-defense.
Prosecutors plan to argue that Clenney was the primary aggressor in her relationship with Obumseli—and are set to use his phone data to prove it to a jury. The Daily Beast previously reported that Obumseli had recorded some of their arguments before she killed him, including at least one in which she can be heard using a vile slur.
“You’re a n-----. I want you to get away from me,” Clenney yelled in one five-minute recording, as previously reported by The Daily Beast. In several videos, which are usually obstructed by Obumseli’s phone or hand, he is heard apparently trying to de-escalate the situation and apologize.
But the newly released text messages amount to fresh evidence that the fatal incident did not come out of anywhere. The Miami State Attorney’s Office has also released photographs of two deep wounds Obumseli suffered in late January to The Daily Beast, including images showing cuts to his cheek and chin that were so severe that text messages indicated Obumseli went to the hospital for stitches.
Larry Handfield, an attorney for Obumseli’s family, told the Herald that the newly released texts and images suggest Clenney “terrorized his life” and “demonstrated a pattern of violence.” He also said the family was planning to file a wrongful death civil lawsuit against the Instagram Influencer. In a statement to The Daily Beast on Thursday, Clenney’s lawyers slammed the release of evidence in their client's case—insisting that it was “a one-sided snapshot in time.”
“It’s not the whole story. It’s missing context. The most sensational pieces of evidence are being cherry-picked by reporters, without proper context, to feed the public’s curiosity with this case,” attorney Frank Prieto and his legal team said. “What is clear to us is that the evidence shows the extreme emotions and dysfunction of a relationship off the rails.”
Clenney’s team argued that while they were “piecing together all of the evidence” for trial, it should be noted that a majority of the records released in this case have been from Obumseli’s cellphone—and the case should be focused on what happened in April.
“This is about the action she took that day to save her own life,” the legal team added. “It’s not about recordings, text messages, or previous fights. Courtney is the victim of domestic violence and we believe she was failed by the system as she repeatedly asked for help. The actions Courtney took that day to defend herself were justified. She was in fear for her life.”
In text messages from October 2021, when the couple still lived in Texas, the two argued after Clenney apparently took Obumseli’s cellphone. During their exchange—which took place once Obumseli had his phone back—he claimed that the day prior, Clenney had stabbed him in the leg and he “couldn’t fucking walk.”
“I still gave you a good day even though my leg was hurting because my girlfriend stabbed me,” Obumseli said in an Oct. 9, 2021, text, adding that he did not make her “feel like shit for stabbing” him.
The next day, Obumseli repeatedly texted Clenney to open a door, claiming that at one point she hit him “in the fucking face with a phone then continue[d] to hit the back of my head with the phone.”
“I’m bleeding. Throwing up—think I got a mild concussion and have anxiety,” he wrote. “I slept in the restroom for two hours and I’m just lost beyond words.”
Just minutes later, Clenney texted back: “I’m sorry for hitting you in the face and the back of your head and spitting on you. Is that right? No. You just Piss me tf off, but still love you.”
Clenney did eventually apologize for the altercation and for not responding to his messages while he was “in pain,” adding that she did not realize he “might have a mild concussion.”
Months later, Obumseli and Clenney had another text message exchange after they had moved into the luxury Miami condo. The pair seemed to have had another argument, prompting Clenney to eventually text Obumseli: “Hopefully this will give you time to think about your actions.”
“Enjoy the hospital,” she added in a Jan. 30, 2022, text. “Tell them your side then I’ll tell them what happened.”
Photos show that Obumseli sustained two deep cuts to the face and was going to the hospital for stitches. But Obumseli texted Clenney back insisting that he “is not saying anything” and instead will say he got the cuts from a “football incident.”
Texts show that Obumseli continued to message Clenney that evening, asking her to come to see him and revealing that he was scared. In one text, he noted that he got stabbed “multiple times.” The next day, Clenney apologized for not visiting him at the hospital, adding “I feel extreme regret, sadness, and humiliation, and I am so, so sorry for hurting you.”
In Feb. 28, 2022, messages, a little over a month before his death, Obumseli sent his girlfriend a long text discussing the state of their relationship—and the fact that Clenney had called him a racial slur.
“Your boyfriend is Black and you’re calling him that,” he says.
