An evidentiary listening to was held Tuesday forward of the trial of a social media model accused of murdering her boyfriend in a luxurious Florida rental, CBS Miami reported.
Courtney Clenney, 26, is charged with second-degree homicide with a lethal weapon in the stabbing death of Christian Toby Obumseli at One Paraiso again in April of this yr.
Clenney, who was arrested final month in Hawaii, has pleaded not responsible.
She makes use of the title Courtney Tailor on Instagram and OnlyFans, the place she has greater than 2 million followers.
/ AP
During Tuesday’s listening to, prosecutors offered the evidence they’ll against Clenney. It contains crime scene pictures, the homicide weapon, and the timeline earlier than and after she stabbed Obumseli.
Prosecutors additionally need to introduce an elevator video that reveals Clenney and Obumseli two months earlier than his death. Video from a constructing elevator in February 2022 appeared to present Clenney shoving and hitting Obumseli. According to the arrest warrant, she had additionally been charged with home battery against Obumseli in a resort in Las Vegas in July 2021.
Clenney’s lawyer, Frank Prieto, requested the choose to restrict the quantity of evidence as a result of mentioned her case has gained a lot publicity that releasing any extra evidence may make jury choice an advanced course of.
He mentioned the State Attorney’s Office has 1000’s of pictures, audio, and content material from her social media pages as nicely as greater than 12,000 textual content messages between her and Obumseli. He believes a lot of this evidence is not relative to the case.
“To vigorously defend my client, I’m not going to stand back and let her be a punching bag for the media,” mentioned Prieto. “This case needs to be tried in this courtroom with the protections of a fair and impartial trial.”
Clenney, who was handcuffed and dressed in an orange jumpsuit, shook her head as a choose denied the movement to restrict the evidence shared.
When saying the fees against Clenney final month, Miami State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle mentioned that safety workers on the constructing documented “many instances” of loud arguments between the pair after they moved into the residence in January 2022, including that tenants as far as two flooring above the residence had complained to the constructing concerning the noise.
On the day of Obumseli’s death, he left the residence at 1:15 p.m. and returned at 4:33 p.m. with sandwiches for the pair, Rundle mentioned. Clenney known as her mom at 4:43 and spoke for six minutes, and known as her once more at 4:49 and spoke for seven minutes, Rundle mentioned. At 4:57, she known as 911 to report that Obumseli had been stabbed. During that point, neighbors known as the constructing a few disturbance and safety additionally known as 911, Rundle mentioned.
Rundle mentioned Obumseli can be heard saying that he was dying and shedding feeling in his arm on her 911 name, and that Clenney was heard saying “I’m so sorry.” When police arrived, Clenney was cradling Obumseli’s physique, in accordance to her arrest warrant. He later died of his accidents on the hospital.
Clenney later informed police she had stabbed Obumseli after he grabbed her by the throat and shoved her against the wall, Rundle mentioned. She allegedly mentioned she ran to the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and threw it at him from about 10 ft away.
But Rundle mentioned police didn’t discover any evidence that Clenney had been harmed and mentioned the medical expert disputed her account of the incident, noting that Obumseli’s damage was far more in line with a “downward strike” with the knife than with a throw from such a far distance.
Rundle mentioned the chief medical expert for Miami-Dade County decided that Obumseli was killed by a three-inch deep stab wound to the chest.
“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,” Rundle mentioned.
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