In hidden cellphone recordings, Courtney Clenney can be heard berating her boyfriend Christian Obumseli, swearing at him, calling him a racial slur and apparently slapping him. The videos were taken by Obumseli on his cellphone shortly before April 3, when Clenney fatally stabbed him with a six-inch kitchen knife in the couple’s luxury Miami apartment. Clenney has been charged with Obumseli’s murder, but claims she acted in self-defence. Three brief audio recordings were released in the discovery phase of the murder case against Clenney and were first published by the Miami Herald. Rolling Stone obtained the recordings, which range from one to seven minutes in length.
In a five-minute video that appears to have been shot inside the couple’s apartment, the lens is mostly blocked, but Clenney can be heard demanding Obumseli find her cellphone and berating him for talking to another woman. “Shut up and let me slap you, you fool,” she says, and screams repeatedly for her phone, her voice rough and hoarse. “Find my fucking phone and charge it,” he says. “You always wanted to fuck her,” he says, referring to a woman Obumseli apparently talked to without telling her. “I was on a bike ride and he passed me,” says Obumseli. “And I said, ‘Hey, you and Courtney are having a live chat.’ Oh my god, I forgot to tell you. That doesn’t make you act — and call me a fucking n—-r.” Clenney replies, “You’re a fucking n–r.” Then comes the sound of a slap. Later in the clip, Obumseli pet-calls Clenney as she appears to keep looking for her phone. “Do you remember the last part that did you, CC?’ he yells at her. “No! Find it,” he replies.
“Decide whether or not you’re done with gas,” Clenney says in another clip, a minutes-long video that appears to have been shot in the lobby of their apartment building, One Paraiso. He interrupts Obumseli when he tries to speak. “I apologized, but you hit me,” he finally says. She lowers her voice to a whisper. “Shut the hell up, bitch,” he said. “Do not say that.”
Police camera footage taken in the same lobby was also recently released. It shows Clenney talking to officers responding to a 911 call from building staff days before the stabbing. A former building employee told Rolling Stone Clenney “kicked” Obumseli out of the elevator that night, and an employee on video told police that Obumseli had “taken” Clenney down to the lobby. In that recording, Clenney alternated between anger and despair, telling police she wanted to be “exonerated” of wrongdoing and saying she wanted a restraining order against Obumseli. Clenney’s lawyers said in a television interview that the footage vindicated her defense, while a lawyer for Obumseli’s family called it “self-serving”.
The latest recordings offer the first chance since the investigation began for the public to hear the pair interact, providing further insight into their tumultuous dynamic in a case hinged on who was the victim and who was the perpetrator. When announcing Clenney’s arrest, prosecutors released surveillance footage of Clenney pushing and hitting Obumseli in the elevator of their residence, but no sound was heard.
Clenney’s lawyers say the newly released recordings depict the couple’s toxic relationship but lack context. “She is not going to be sued for her lifestyle, her past feuds or her recorded rants,” her legal team said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “She will stand trial for defending herself against a violent fight with her ex-boyfriend in which she feared for her life. Courtney is a victim of domestic abuse. “Snapshots of ‘evidence’ without any context will prevent our client from receiving a fair trial where the evidence will show that Courtney acted in self-defense.”
Larry Handfield, a lawyer for Obumseli’s family, described the recordings as “shocking” to the Herald. “I see it as a consistent pattern with someone who is independent and out of control,” he said. “She’s the aggressor and the abuser in this whole relationship.”
Prior to Clenney’s arrest, the Rolling Stone report indicated that friends of the couple believed Clenney was the aggressor in an abusive relationship with Obumseli, whom they claimed they had never seen violent towards her. When Miami-Dade District Attorney Kathryn Fernandez Randle announced the murder charge against Cleney in August, she said Obumseli died as a result of domestic violence. Clenney’s lawyers argued she stabbed him in self-defence before trying to help him. “He tried to give first aid as best he could. call 911,” Clenney’s attorney, Frank Prieto, told Rolling Stone in May. “He covered himself in his own blood trying to save his life.”
In the longer recording, which runs more than seven minutes, Obumseli can be heard pleading with Clenney to get back into the car amid the sounds of traffic and honking horns. A passer-by tries to calm her down. Clenney sounds extremely distraught and says she wants to kill herself, then explains to a man caught up in the chaos that she got into a fight with someone in another car. “I opened the door and went out and hit him and then [Obumseli] he said, “Go apologize to that man,” he says. “I feel like I have nowhere to go but my head.”
When Clenney stabbed Obumseli, she was questioned by police then “Baker Acted,” meaning she was involuntarily committed to mental health treatment. Clenney’s lawyer, Prieto, told Rolling Stone at the time that this was because she had threatened to harm herself. After that, Obumseli’s family questioned why it took authorities more than four months to make an arrest. They believed she was getting special treatment because she was a white woman and Obumseli was black. At the time of Clenney’s arrest, Prieto said she was in rehab for PTSD and substance abuse.
In the video taken on the side of the road, Obumseli and the passerby ask Clenney to breathe and relax. “CC just stop, please,” says Obumseli. “Fuck you,” he screams. “You make yourself look good in front of people.” She says she’s sorry for trying to get her to apologize to the person who hit the other car. “Fuck you” he says repeatedly. “You told me to apologize to a humble life.” Slaps are heard before the video ends. “Stop hitting me,” says Obumseli. “It’s okay, just stop!”
