In surreptitious cell cellphone recordings, Courtney Clenney may be heard berating her boyfriend Christian Obumseli, hurling insults at him, calling him a racist slur, and seemingly slapping him. The movies have been taken by Obumseli on his cellphone a while earlier than April 3, when Clenney fatally stabbed him with a six-inch kitchen knife within the couple’s luxurious Miami residence. Clenney has been charged with Obumseli’s homicide, however she claims she acted in self protection. Three temporary recordings have been offered within the discovery section of the homicide case towards Clenney and first revealed by the Miami Herald. Rolling Stone has obtained the recordings, which run between one and 7 minutes in size.
In a five-minute video that seems to have been taken contained in the couple’s residence, the lens is generally blocked, however Clenney may be heard demanding Obumseli discover her cellphone and berating him for speaking to a different lady. “Shut up and let me f*cking slap you, dumbass,” she says, and repeatedly screams for her cellphone, her voice ragged and hoarse. “Discover my f*cking cellphone and cost it,” she says. “You all the time needed to f*ck her,” she says, referring to a girl Obumseli apparently spoke to with out telling her. “I used to be on a motorbike experience and he or she handed me,” Obumseli says. “And I mentioned ‘Hello, you and Courtney are having a stay chat.’ My dangerous, I forgot to inform you that. That doesn’t make you to behave— and name me a f*cking n—-r.” Clenney replies, “You’re a f*cking n—-r.” Then there’s the sound of a slap.Later within the clip, Obumseli calls Clenney a pet identify as he seemingly continues to search for her cellphone. “You keep in mind the final place you had it, CC?” he calls to her. “Nope! Discover it,” she responds.
“Resolve whether or not or not you’re achieved gaslighting me,” Clenney says in one other clip, a minute-long video that seems to have been taken within the foyer of their residence constructing, One Paraiso. She interrupts Obumseli when he tries to talk. “I apologized, however you hit me,” he says, finally. She lowers her voice to a whisper. “Shut the f*ck up, bitch,” she mentioned. “Don’t f*cking say that.”
Police physique digital camera footage taken in the identical foyer was additionally not too long ago made public in discovery. It reveals Clenney talking with law enforcement officials who have been responding to a 911 name from constructing employees simply days earlier than the stabbing. A former constructing staffer advised Rolling Stone Clenney had “shoved” Obumseli out of the elevator that evening, and an worker within the video advised police Obumseli had “charged” towards Clenney within the foyer. In that recording, Clenney alternated between rage and desperation, telling police she needed to be “exonerated” of wrongdoing and saying that she needed a restraining order towards Obumseli. Clenney’s attorneys mentioned in a TV interview that footage proved her protection, whereas a lawyer for Obumseli’s household known as it “self-serving.”
The most recent recordings supply the primary alternative for the reason that investigation started for the general public to listen to the couple interacting, offering additional perception into their troubled dynamic in a case that hinges upon who was the sufferer and who was the abuser. When saying Clenney’s arrest, prosecutors launched surveillance footage of Clenney pushing and hitting Obumseli within the elevator at their residence, however there is no such thing as a sound.
Attorneys for Clenney say the newly launched recordings illustrate the couple’s poisonous relationship however lack context. “She’s not going to trial for her life-style, her earlier arguments, or recorded rants,” her authorized staff mentioned in an announcement to Rolling Stone. “She goes to trial for defending herself towards a violent battle along with her ex-boyfriend for which she feared for her life; Courtney is a sufferer of home abuse. Snapshots of ‘proof’ with none context will stop our shopper from receiving a good trial, the place the proof will present that Courtney acted in self-defense.”
Larry Handfield, a lawyer for Obumseli’s household, described the recordings as “stunning” to the Herald. “I see it as a constant sample with somebody who’s unhinged and uncontrolled,” he mentioned. “She is the aggressor and abuser on this entire relationship.”
Forward of Clenney’s arrest, reporting by Rolling Stone confirmed buddies of the couple believed Clenney had been the aggressor in an abusive relationship with Obumseli, whom they claimed they’d by no means seen be violent in direction of her. When Miami-Dade State Lawyer Katherine Fernandez Rundle introduced the homicide cost towards Clenney in August, she mentioned Obumseli had died the sufferer of home violence. Clenney’s attorneys have maintained that she stabbed him in self-defense, earlier than attempting to assist him. “She tried to manage first help as finest she might; she known as 911,” Clenney’s lawyer Frank Prieto advised Rolling Stone in Might. “She received coated in his blood attempting to avoid wasting his life.”
Within the longest recording, which runs greater than seven minutes, Obumseli may be heard begging Clenney to get again within the automotive over the sounds of site visitors and blaring horns. A bystander makes an attempt to calm her down. Clenney sounds extraordinarily agitated and says that she needs to kill herself, then explains to a person who’s pulled over amid the chaos that she received into an altercation with somebody in one other automotive. “I opened the door and I received out and I f*cking hit him, after which [Obumseli] mentioned, ‘Go apologize to that man,’” she says. “I really feel like I don’t have wherever to go however my head.”
When Clenney stabbed Obumseli, she was questioned by police then “Baker Acted,” which means dedicated involuntarily for psychological well being therapy. Clenney’s lawyer, Prieto, advised Rolling Stone on the time this was as a result of she had threatened to hurt herself. After that, Obumseli’s household has questioned why it took authorities greater than 4 months to make an arrest. They believed she was receiving particular therapy as a result of she was a white lady and Obumseli a Black man. On the time of Clenney’s arrest, Prieto has acknowledged she was in rehab for PTSD and substance abuse.
Within the video taken by the roadside, Obumseli and the bystander ask Clenney to breathe and loosen up. “CC simply cease, please,” Obumseli says. “f*ck you,” she screams. “You make your self look good in entrance of individuals.” He says he’s sorry for attempting to make her apologize to the particular person she hit within the different automotive. “f*ck you” she says repeatedly. “You simply advised me to f*cking apologize to a lowlife.” Slaps may be heard earlier than the video ends. “Cease f*cking hitting me,” Obumseli says. “It’s OK, simply cease!”
