Courtney Clenney: Defense attorneys seek to disqualify prosecutors over alleged access to private communications
Clenney, a former OnlyFans model, has been charged with murdering her boyfriend in 2022, and both sides have since remained divided on who the abusive party was.
Many delays and twists have continuously delayed the trial for a former OnlyFans model accused of murdering her boyfriend in April 2022, and the latest update is not no different.
Courtney Clenney went from having two million followers on social media and making millions of dollars to being arrested for allegedly murdering her boyfriend in what prosecutors describe as a tumultuous relationship, CBS previously reported.
ABC 6 now says that Clenney’s defense team is trying to have the state attorney’s office disqualified from the case after accusations that prosecutors violated attorney-client privilege when they accessed private conversations between the Clenney family and defense attorneys.
This came after prosecutors filed charges against Courtney’s parents for allegedly hacking into a laptop that had reportedly belonged to her boyfriend, Christian Obumseli, before he died. Both Courtney and her parents were charged for allegedly breaking into the computer.
Defense attorneys Frank Prieto and Sabrina Puglisi voiced their concerns over what prosecutors possibly saw of their attorney-client conversations in the process of charging Courtney and her parents. The defense team claims prosecutors had access to “communication regarding case investigation, witness testimony, defense witnesses, expert witnesses, financial obligations, defense theories, counsel’s thoughts and impressions, and opinions on the case,” ABC notes.
Citing records, ABC also notes that in a motion, the defense revealed their worry that “Assistant State Attorney Khalil Quinan conducted a search of the iCloud accounts and discovered the ‘Team Courtney’….communications that the parties believed to be private and privileged.”
Quinan has since withdrawn from the case. Defense attorneys also deposed him before a judge earlier this year.
The defense also claims that about 60 people within the state attorney’s office had access to the privileged information in question, and are requesting the entire office be disqualified, or to kick Shawn Abuhoff and Kathleen Hoague off the case. This is necessary, defense attorneys say, to preserve their client’s right to a fair trial.
Abuhoff and Hoague became the rare prosecutors to ever take the stand in their own defense on April 30, 2025. They raised their hands to swear an oath to tell the truth, and claimed they did not personally see any of the privileged information in question.
A hearing on the matter has been set for next month, ABC 6 notes. If the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office is indeed kicked off the Clenney case, another county’s office can be assigned to take over.
A short but troubled relationship
On April 3, 2022, police responded to the luxury high-rise apartment the couple shared to find 27-year-old Christian “Toby” Obumseli suffering from a stab wound, and rushed him to the trauma center of Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he died.
Clenney and Obumseli dated for two years; a relationship that started in November 2020, littered with domestic violence claims and security reports of frequent loud arguments between them, said Miami State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, according to CBS.
Rundle added that neighbors in the building claimed they could hear the couple fighting. Courtney and Christian had moved into the condo in January 2022, CBS says.
Oxygen reports that the couple had moved from Texas to Florida in early 2022.
In a video taken in February 2022, shown by Rundle, Courtney is seen shoving and hitting Christian in the condo building elevator.
CBS cites the arrest warrant to state that Courtney had been charged in July 2021 with domestic battery against Christian in a Las Vegas hotel.
In March 2022, Courtney kicked him out of their home, though he returned on April 1, only for police to be called there later that day to find Courtney allegedly intoxicated. Prieto claims Clenney kicked him out on claims of domestic abuse.
Quoting the arrest warrant again, CBS states that domestic violence had happened “on both sides” of the relationship. However, Christian’s family protests this.
“We have no cause to believe that this was a case of self-defense. Toby was raised with a, by a very strong family with strong morals, strong values, he does not come from that,” Karen Egbuna, Obemsuli’s cousin, told CBS.
The murder
Christian’s final day appeared just like any other, according to Rundle in the CBS report. On April 3, 2022 at 1:15 p.m., he left the apartment in One Paraiso, an expensive, luxury condo in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, and returned with sandwiches for him and Courtney at 4:33 p.m.
Within that next half hour, Courtney allegedly stabbed her boyfriend to death. She called her mother at 4:43 for a conversation that lasted six minutes, then again for seven minutes at 4:49.
She called 911 at 4:57 to report that Christian had been stabbed, while neighbors reported a disturbance to the building management. Security also called 911.
Rundle described how Christian could be heard in the background of Courtney’s 911 call, claiming he was dying and losing feeling in his arm. Courtney, according to Rundle, can also be heard saying “I’m so sorry.”
The arrest warrant, cited by CBS, says Courtney clung to Christian’s body when police arrived. He later died of his injuries in the hospital.
Courtney allegedly claimed to police that Christian grabbed her by the throat and shoved her against a wall, after which she ran to the kitchen, grabbed the knife, and threw it at him from about ten feet away.
Rundle disputed this, pointing out that police found no evidence Courtney had been harmed. The medical examiner, according to Rundle, also disputed Courtney’s account. The ME determined that the fatal injury inflicted was more consistent with a “downward” strike of a knife, not a throw.
The chief medical examiner for Miami-Dade County determined that Christian died from a three-inch stab wound to the chest.
Courtney’s mother allegedly admitted to police that she heard her daughter telling Christian to leave, claiming he was “lying”, but mentioned nothing about her daughter being attacked.
The warrant disputes Courtney’s mother’s claim to investigators that she didn’t discuss Christian’s death with Courtney. Investigators discovered a text on Courtney’s phone sent at 5:25 p.m. that day from “mom” which told Courtney not to speak to police without an attorney and made mention of “self-defense.”
U.S. Marshals arrested Clenney in Hawaii on August 10, 2022. She has been charged with second-degree murder with a deadly weapon, to which she pleaded not guilty. She has spent the last three years in prison awaiting trial.
During the August 27, 2022 hearing, Clenney’s lawyers claimed the second-degree murder charge is unjustified, and that manslaughter would have been the more appropriate charge, Oxygen says.
Prieto also claims there is proof of Clenney’s injuries from the day of the murder.
“I was at the homicide unit and I have photographs of her bruising. So I think that pursuant to Franks vs. Delaware, Your Honor, can in fact reevaluate the probable cause if you excised those portions of the arrest affidavit,” Prieto told the court.
Pietro claimed back in April 2022 that Clenney is seeking professional help to process the trauma from the night of Obumseli’s death, and called their relationship complicated, according to CBS.
“It was clearly a toxic relationship, (they) had their ups and downs and, unfortunately, it culminated with his death,” Pietro said.
In an August 11, 2022 statement, Rundle was adamant that this death never needed to happen.
“The violent and toxic two-year relationship of these individuals did not have to end in tragedy with Christian’s murder as a victim of domestic violence. No personal relationship should ever involve domestic violence. Make no mistake about it, domestic violence is a crime, and no one should tolerate it,” Rundle said after Clenney’s arrest.
Footage and photos give no clear answers but show a toxic relationship gone tragically wrong
Police bodycam footage from April 1, 2022 shows Courtney, 26-years-old at the time, pleading with police for a restraining order against Christian. In October 2022, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office released the footage of when Miami police officers responded to the couple’s home, NBC reported at the time.
Building management had called to report a domestic dispute. Responding officers were greeted by a doorman, according to a report by the Daily Mail. Courtney, visibly shaken and distressed, talked on the phone before she asked the doorman to let her in upon locking herself out.
The doorman in the video, posted in full by the Daily Mail, explains to the police that Christian had been lingering in the lobby. The doorman had asked Courtney if she wanted him to go up to the apartment. She refused, the doorman said. In the video, Courtney appears frustrated until police let her speak.
She explains that she didn’t take her dogs out “for 8 hours” because she feared Christian would be in the lobby when she downstairs. She claimed when she did walk her dogs, he wouldn’t leave her alone.
“I have not always been a victim ... but right now I am a freakin’ victim. I’m getting kicked out of my own apartment, I’m scared,” Clenney tells police in the footage.
The doorman in the footage went on to explain that Christian had approached Courtney when she got on the elevator, back from walking her dogs. She held out her hands to stop him, after which Obumseli accused her of shoving him.
“Her boyfriend comes charging at her ... the boyfriend came after her, and then I said enough is enough, the police need to be called,” the doorman told officers in the video.
When the officer asks her if there was any physical violence that made her afraid of him, she replies “yes” but that it wasn’t her concern at the moment. Courtney further explains that her mother had stayed with her for a week when she and Christian broke up, and that her mother allegedly found him staying in Courtney’s elevator room.
When Courtney requests a restraining order in the footage, the officer informs her she needs to go to court to obtain one. She had her father, who she called her attorney, on the phone.
Police escorted Courtney back to her apartment and looked around for Christian, but didn’t find him, the Daily Mail said.
Courtney asks how she can keep herself safe “now” before she obtains the restraining order. She appears to get few answers as police explained that since Christian still technically lived there, he wasn’t illegally trespassing.
In November 2022, NBC 6 published photos released by the prosecution, reportedly taken by Courtney’s mother a few days after the murder. The photos reveal bruises all over Courtney’s body.
More video and audio footage released showed Christian had been recording Courtney’s alleged verbal abuse against him in the months leading up to the murder, according to the Daily Mail. Courtney is shown spewing insults and racial slurs at Christian, clips which the Obumseli family attorney called “shocking,” displaying “a consistent pattern with someone who is unhinged and out of control.”
Another phone recording caught Courtney asking Christian if he was “done gaslighting her” to which he replied “Courtney, that’s a f***ing threat. I asked you something ... and I apologized but you hit me.” This clip ends with her saying “Shut the f**k up b***h.”
Courtney is heard in still another clip allegedly screaming “F**k you! No, you make yourself look good in front of people!” during an intense argument while she and Christian were on the road. She jumped out of the car and involved passersby of the incident, according to the Daily Mail. Once in the car again, slaps can be heard on the recording, during which Christian is heard saying “stop hitting me!”
The Tampa Bay Times reported in November 2022 that in the year before his death, Christian suffered a stab wound to the leg so severe he couldn’t walk, a blow to the head so hard he suffered a concussion, and two cuts to the chin and cheek so severe he went to the hospital for stitches after taking photos of them — all at the hands, according to messages from his phone’s iCloud account, of Courtney Clenney.
“Is love going to kill me? 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 re-opened multiple times and it’s not healing fast enough,” Christian said in a text message to Courtney.
These recordings have been deemed by defense attorneys as “snapshots in time” which didn’t accurately reflect how Courtney was allegedly abused by Christian. The defense claims Courtney stabbed Christian in self-defense, an abuse victim trying to save her own life. The prosecution, however, paints Courtney as the abuser of the relationship who tore down Christian until she finally allegedly killed him.
The only thing the two sides do agree on is that the relationship was highly toxic and tumultuous.
There have been many photos and videos released over the three years since Courtney was arrested. None of them show a clear picture of a defined monster and victim. Christian’s family has also filed a lawsuit against Courtney, seeking money “for damages in excess of $50,000,” according to court documents.
Michael Haggard, the Obumseli family lawyer, revealed in July 2023 that police had visited the couple’s condo on eight separate occasions in the two months they lived there. He told Rolling Stone that every time, Courtney was “absolutely hysterical, screaming, doing everything.”
“All the witnesses say that he was under control. That he was just trying to calm her down, he’s trying to give her a second chance,” Haggard explained.
The defense has accused the prosecution of “cherry-picking” snippets from these photos and videos, which they also point out all came from Christian’s phone, in order to paint a narrative, according to a Tampa Bay Times report.
Prieto revealed that a recorded police interview showed a neighbor approaching the crime scene to inform the officer that Christian allegedly assaulted Courtney on the balcony the previous day, MEAWW reported in July 2023.
“They saw it from their balcony, they felt they needed to get involved and that is a critical piece of evidence. Mr. Obumseli, though the family would like to paint him as a docile individual, a peaceful man, that is absurd. He was an abuser, he was an animal,” Prieto told Court TV.
The arrests that backfired on the prosecution
Courtney’s parents, 60-year-old Kim Dewayne Clenney and 57-year-old Deborah Lyn Clenney got caught up in felony charges of unauthorized access to to a computer or electronic device in February 2024, NBC reported at the time.
Haggard stated that the charges relate to someone deleting information off the deceased’s laptop, NBC says. Courtney’s father allegedly returned to the condo where Obumseli died and found the laptop. The warrants state that many of Christian’s belongings were removed from the apartment following his death and weren’t returned to his family.
Search warrants were executed for Courtney’s cell phone, iCloud account, and her parents’ iCloud accounts, with which Apple complied, NBC says. This gave investigators a look at a group chat between Courtney’s attorneys and her parents.
The warrant states that the chat included discussions about how to get access into Christian’s laptop using passwords they guessed at.
“Are there any PIN/passwords we can try before you see her tomorrow?” Kim Clenney said at one point, according to the warrants.
“Hell yeah! That PIN worked!” Kim said in the chat the next day, after determining the password was a series of numbers, not letters, the warrants say.
The attorney discouraged Kim’s alleged snooping, NBC notes.
“Kim. Hold off on going through the computer please. I don’t want to turn you into a witness just yet if you find something useful,” the attorney said, as per the warrants.
The attorneys also told the Clenneys that shipping the laptop could be problematic, the warrants say.
“When it comes to potential evidence, we always have to consider ‘chain of custody’ issues and don’t necessarily want to take the risk something gets ‘lost’ in mail,” one of the attorneys said.
Another expressed concern about the District Attorneys wanting to do their own analysis of the contents on the computer, NBC says.
“Also, as I’m sure you guessed by me[SIC] prior text, we don’t want you accessing files because the State Attorneys could request their own independent analysis of the hard drive and accuse you of creating or modifying files. That’s why I want to put a quick pause on that. Obviously I know you would not do that but we want to maintain that credibility,” the attorney wrote.
According to the warrant, Kim replied that he “was starting to poke around, but we started a video call so I stopped. Never opened a file, so I didn’t see anything.”
Kim also told the attorneys, a few days later, that he’d “also like for you to have the laptop soon, so you can see if there’s anything of use to us on it.”
He did turn the laptop in to the attorneys, NBC notes. But the Clenneys didn’t obtain permission from Christian’s estate to go into the computer, and Florida law says that going into anyone’s computer without permission is illegal.
In light of this, Courtney saw two more charges piled on top of the second-degree murder one: one count of interception of wire or electronic communication and unauthorized access or excessive access to a computer.
No trial date has been set yet while the defense attempts to have the current prosecutors disqualified from the case.
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Sources
CBS
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Daily Mail