Months before he was fatally stabbed, Christian Obumseli contemplated in a lengthy text message to his social media model girlfriend: "Is love going to kill me?"
Text messages obtained this week by the Miami Herald reveal more about what prosecutors called a tempestuous relationship between the two before Obumseli's death at their high-rise Miami apartment on April 3, allegedly at the hands of girlfriend Courtney Clenney.
In a text sent to Clenney on Oct. 9, 2021, Obumseli mentions that she stabbed him in the leg. He claimed the pain was so bad that he could barely walk.
"This crazy thing about all of this is that yesterday when you (expletive) stabbed me in the (expletive) leg and you saw how (expletive) bad it was hurting me and I couldn't (expletive) walk I couldn't do (expletive) and you were telling me I wish I could take your pain away I wish it was me and not you," he wrote.
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The texts reveal Obumseli felt tormented over their relationship, lamenting, "I have sacrificed my pride and ego - sometimes telling myself how I don't need to win, hey just let her have her way."
He later indicated he was sliced in the face with a knife, got slapped on his stitches (preventing them from healing), got cheated on, got kicked out and got called a slur.
The texts are part of the case against Clenney, who's facing a second-degree murder charge in the stabbing.
Clenney's attorneys maintain that the model — who also went by the name Courtney Tailor on social media, including on OnlyFans — stabbed Obumseli in self-defense and was a victim of domestic violence.
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Her defense team said Obumseli's newly released texts are a "one-sided snapshot in time."
"It’s not the whole story. It’s missing context. The most sensational pieces of evidence are being cherry-picked by reporters, without proper context, to feed the public’s curiosity with this case," Attorney Frank Prieto said in a statement Friday.
The statement continued, in part, "Also, the majority of the records released so far have come from Christian’s cellphone. There is another side to this we look forward to presenting in court. These salacious headlines are distracting from the real issue. This is about the action she took that day to save her own life. It’s not about recordings, text messages, or previous fights. Courtney is the victim of domestic violence and we believe she was failed by the system as she repeatedly asked for help."
Recordings from Obumseli's cellphone, released earlier this week, captured several arguments between the couple.
Clenney is heard cursing at Obumseli in the recordings, and in another, she calls him a racist slur.
Obumseli, 27, and Clenney, 26, had moved to South Florida from Texas in January 2022.
Miami-Dade prosecutors said the two had been "involved in an extremely tempestuous and combative relationship" that culminated in the April 3 stabbing in their unit at the One Paraiso condo building on Northeast 7th Avenue in Edgewater.
A 911 call made by Clenney after the stabbing and released last month captured some of Obumseli's last moments.
"I'm going to die. I can't feel my arms," Obumseli can be heard saying in the background during the call. "I can't feel my arms."
"My boyfriend is dying of a stab wound!" Clenney said in the call. "Please God, please. Come save my boyfriend!"
The release of the 911 call came after the release of a Miami Police bodycam video that shows officers responding to the condo building after a reported domestic dispute between Clenney and Obumseli just two days before the stabbing.
Clenney could be heard saying she wants a restraining order against Obumseli.
Prosecutors also showed surveillance footage of the couple engaged in a violent encounter in the building's elevator on Feb. 21, about a month after they moved in.
