The parents of Courtney Clenney, the former OnlyFans model who was charged with murdering her boyfriend in 2022, were arrested Tuesday over allegations of evidence tampering in the case.
In the arrest warrants obtained by NBC Miami, prosecutors for Miami-Dade County alleged Kim and Deborah Clenney, 60 and 57, accessed the laptop of Christian “Toby” Obumseli after he was fatally stabbed in the condo where he lived with Courtney.
On Tuesday, the parents were booked into the Texas-based Travis County Jail on a number of unspecified, out-of-state felony charges, according to the jail’s records.
Courtney herself is also facing a new charge to do with the unauthorized access of a computer. At this time, it is not clear what, if anything, was accessed posthumously on Obumseli’s laptop.
Authorities have also alleged several of Obumseli’s personal belongings were removed from the apartment after his death.
Courtney has already been charged with second-degree murder with a deadly weapon in connection to the killing of her then-boyfriend.
In what has since become an internationally known, scandalous criminal case, Obumseli was killed in the couple’s luxury Edgewater condo in Miami on April 3, 2022.
At the time of her arrest, Courtney pleaded not guilty to the charges against her.
Prior to her arrest, Courtney used the name Courtney Tailor online. She had a following of several million on social media and was known for producing adult content.
Courtney is being held without bond while she awaits trial.
NBC Miami reported that police thought to search for Obumseli’s laptop after a warrant used to access Courtney’s iCloud account revealed text messages between the Clenney parents and Courtney’s lawyers about Obumseli’s computer.
The arrest warrant alleged the group attempted to guess several of Obumseli’s passwords to access the device.
“Are there any PIN/passwords we can try before you see her tomorrow?” Kim allegedly wrote in one text message to the group.
Kim later told the group he was able to access the laptop with a numerical pin. The father was then warned by one of Courtney’s lawyers not to search through the computer.
“I don’t want to turn you into a witness just yet if you find something useful,” the lawyer allegedly wrote.
Another lawyer warned that prosecutors may want to access the computer’s hard drive and could “accuse you of creating or modifying files.”
“That’s why I want to put a quick pause on that,” the lawyer wrote about using the laptop. “Obviously I know you would not do that but we want to maintain that credibility.”
Kim replied that he never accessed any files on the computer and had “barely opened it and was starting to poke around” before the lawyers told him to stop.
The lawyers for the Clenney family also discouraged shipping the laptop by mail courier.
In a statement to NBC Miami, the Clenneys’ legal team said they are “extremely surprised and very concerned” about Kim and Deborah’s arrest. They branded the arrests a “power play by prosecutors to control the narrative.”
“This could be an example of prosecutorial overreach and misconduct,” the statement reads. “It appears excessive in that the family is now confined in jail awaiting an extradition hearing on what may be an attempt to manipulate media headlines and discredit them before Thursday’s scheduled hearing on a gag order in the case.”
The statement concluded: “We believe the Clenney family has been targeted with some trumped up charges to discredit them in the press and make their lives miserable.”
In the months after Obumseli’s death, Miami-Dade prosecutors said Obumseli was a victim of domestic abuse. For her part, Courtney’s lawyers have said she was the victim of domestic abuse, and that she acted in self-defence.
Obumseli’s family has claimed Courtney was a manipulative abuser.
The couple had been dating since November 2020.
—
If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse or is involved in an abusive situation, please visit the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime for help. They are also reachable toll-free at 1-877-232-2610.
Comments