The legal team for the OnlyFans model accused of murdering her boyfriend in their Miami apartment does not want the evidence surrounding his death to be made public before trial. Attorneys for the defense believe details regarding the bloody killing would bias a potential jury against the young lady and have asked a judge to limit how much evidence can be shared before the trial.
Now the judge has said she will consider the defense’s request.
Social media influencer Courtney Clenney, who once boasted about her love for rich Black men, is waiting to be extradited to Miami from a Hawaiian jail cell. Once she is back in Florida, she will face a second-degree murder charge for stabbing her deceased boyfriend, Christian “Toby” Obumseli. She claimed it was self-defense.
However, both those in close proximity to the couple and law enforcement, believe differently, stating this is a fatal case of domestic abuse.
The young lady’s lawyers, defense attorneys Frank Prieto and Sabrina Puglisi, during a meeting with the courts on Friday, Aug. 19, petitioned to have some of the evidence in the case suppressed. They asked if Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Diana Vizcaino could stop the prosecution from putting out to the media aspects of their discovery in an effort to “preserve the accused’s right to a fair and impartial jury.”
However, for Prieto, he believes some of the information State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle released, like a video of his client attacking Obumseli in an elevator months before the killing, is detrimental to Clenney’s case.
Vizcaino said she would consider limiting the release of information, setting a hearing within the first weeks of September, according to Florida Times.
Information being shared with the public is not abnormal.
According to the state’s 2022 statutes on evidence maintained by Florida state attorneys, “it is the policy of this state that all state, county, and municipal records shall at all times be open for a personal inspection by any person.”
These records are identified as “all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings or other material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any agency,” including the state attorney.
Based on these laws, several outside entities have lifted their voices in protest.
The Miami Herald, a media outlet closely covering the story, is opposed to restricting publication of evidence. The newspaper’s attorney Scott Ponce wrote in a statement that it is “implausible to suggest that public disclosure of the discovery will taint the citizens of a county as large as Miami-Dade County to such a degree that it will be impossible to empanel an impartial jury for a trial of this action.”
Prosecutor Khalil Quinan, representing the state attorney’s office, gave a rebuttal pointing to the defense’s multiple statements to the media, painting a hypocritical portrait of Prieto’s effort to limit lawful public records disclosures to the press.
Quinan said this is “another attention-grabbing effort by a media hungry defendant.”
During the court hearing, the defense asked the judge to allow their team to hire a defense expert to inspect Obumseli’s body, but after learning his body had already been buried in his home state of Texas, they withdrew their request.
“If the gentleman is already buried, we do not want to disturb that,” Prieto said.
“The best evidence to explore, it would clearly be the actual body, not just what the medical examiner wanted to photograph,” Prieto said according to NBC Miami. “.. It would have to go back to the to the judge to make a very difficult decision. We don’t anticipate that.”
The family’s counsel, Larry Hanfield, said, “This family has been traumatized with the killing of their loved one.”
“To have even considered having the body exhumed for purposes of the defense, trying to create a defense as relates to the defendant, in this case, would be adding throwing salt on top of the wound,” the lawyer continued.
On Apr. 3, Clenney and Obumseli’s stormy relationship came to an end after she violently stabbed him in their luxury high-rise apartment. Her committing the act is not in question, but the motive behind the fatal stabbing is.
Prieto suggests his client is the actual victim of domestic violence, who inadvertently took her lover’s life while trying to preserve her own.
“The evidence is going to show in this case that she was harassed, gaslighted and Mr. Obusmeli would never leave her alone, would try and eavesdrop on all of her conversations,” the attorney said after the hearing.
