Family Of Christian Obumseli Names OnlyFans Model Courtney Clenney And Others In Wrongful Death Suit
The family of slain Christian Obumseli has leveled a wrongful death suit against OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney, alleging that she failed to "maintain the subject premises in a safe and danger-free manner" when she stabbed her partner to death with a kitchen knife last April.
Last month, Chio Obumseli filed a civil suit against Clenney for his son's death in Miami-Dade County Court. Also named as defendants in the suit are the owners of the luxury high-rise where Obumseli was stabbed, the building's security company and two property management companies, according to a copy of the March 17 court filing obtained by Law&Crime.
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Updated on Friday, the lawsuit alleges that Clenney is liable financially for Obumseli's medical and funeral expenses and to his estate because she stabbed him intentionally, causing undue stress and suffering for his surviving family and denying them his financial support in the future, according to Rolling Stone.
Courtney Clenney Photo: Hawai‘i Police Department
"At all material times, Courtney Clenney owed a duty to decedent Christian Obumseli to maintain the subject premises in a safe and danger-free manner," reads the document. "Courtney Clenney breached her duty to exercise reasonable care for the safety and protection of Christian Obumseli, deceased, and acted in a careless and negligent manner."
Clenney, 26, claims that she stabbed then-boyfriend, cryptocurrency trader Christian Tobechukwu "Toby" Obumseli, in self-defense. The couple had broken up, her attorneys claimed, and 27-year-old Obumseli was stalking her, they said. Although Clenney claimed that Obumseli tried to choke her in the moments before his death, prosecutors said she had no bruises consistent with choking and that the man was unarmed.
Clenney, who is currently jailed, was charged with second-degree murder in Obumseli’s death last August and is awaiting trial. She has pleaded not guilty.
Police records and other evidence suggest that there was a regular pattern of abuse between the couple. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said their relationship was "tempestuous and combative" and that Clenney was the "aggressor," according to Rolling Stone.
Michael Haggard, a lawyer representing Obumseli's family, told Rolling Stone that he had "over 10 witnesses, not only from this building, from adjacent buildings, that are like, this woman is absolutely screaming at the top of her lungs, every curse word you can think [of], threatening this guy."
Meanwhile, he said, those witnesses all said that Obumseli was "under control" and that they never saw him acting aggressively. "He was just trying to calm her down, he's trying to give her a second chance."
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Haggard called the situation "reverse domestic violence," remarking to the outlet that "most of the time, it's a man" who is abusive.
Multiple friends who knew the couple told Rolling Stone in a story published last May that Clenney was the abusive party in the relationship. Surveillance footage depicting her shoving and hitting Obumselli in their building's elevator, phone recordings taken in secret by Obumseli, and interviews with the couple's neighbors at their previous home in Austin, Texas support allegations of her aggressive behavior.
And in a statement to police immediately after stabbing Obumseli on April 3 of last year, the Texas-born model said that she "didn't really know if [the stabbing] was justified at all," according to FOX 4.
But Frank Prieto, Clenney's attorney, told Rolling Stone that "the evidence in both the criminal and civil case will show that Courtney's actions were taken to defend herself from an imminent attack by Obumseli."
The lawsuit accuses Aleros Real Estate LLC, First Service Residential Inc. and Allied Universal Security Services LLC of providing "inadequate and/or nonexistent deterrence to prevent" Obumseli's assault.
At the One Paraiso Condominium in Edgewater, Miami where Clenney and Obumseli lived and where Obumseli lost his life, "criminals could carry out physical assaults within subject building without fear of being caught, discovered or prosecuted" due to an "atmosphere ... that facilitated the commission of crimes against persons," according to the lawsuit.
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Obumseli's family is seeking damages upward of $50,000, per court documents.
Prieto told TMZ that the family has filed the suit "in hopes of getting a huge payout because these companies have very high limits on their insurance policies. Courtney has no assets that the Estate can collect on."
Using the moniker "Courtney Tailor," the model earned $3 million between 2020 and her arrest last August, according to previous court filings reviewed by Law&Crime. More recently, the state specified that she made $900,000 on OnlyFans in 2020 and $1.8 million in 2021.
Clenney's father testified that she currently has about $11,000 in her name and $375,000 equity in her house. These sums do not include Clenney's other revenue streams, including her Instagram with 2 million followers and sponsorship deals. A court deemed her a flight risk when she sought release on bail last November.
Clenney has "no ties to Florida" and "ample means to leave the country were she to choose to do so," the court said in its decision, citing "substantial funds at her disposal" and noting her "ability to make more outside of the jurisdiction of the United States."
According to FOX 4, Clenney's next court hearing is scheduled for May 9.
Prieto told TMZ that "once [Clenney] is vindicated in the criminal matter, the civil case will also fall apart."
