Attorney For Obumseli Family Says Self-Defense Claims Are Self-Serving

This is far from finished…

It’s been nearly two weeks since Christian Toby Obumseli was fatally stabbed inside a luxury apartment building in Miami, Florida, by his white girlfriend,  Courtney Clenney. Clenney has yet to be arrested or charged with a crime. Her attorney, Frank Prieto, has maintained that his client acted in self-defense as she’s a victim of domestic abuse, but the attorney representing Obumseli’s family is calling bulls*** on that claim.

Source: Albert L. Ortega / Getty

In fact, he says that Clenney’s claim that she’s the true victim in this case and that she acted out of fear for her own safety is a “self-serving” claim.

“We believe that her statements are self-serving in an effort to avoid any accountability for using deadly force when no deadly force had been used against her,” attorney Larry Handfield told Fox News Digital Thursday. “Although the family is still mourning the untimely death of Mr. Obumseli, we believe that once a full investigation is done Ms. Clenney will be held to account for taking the life of Mr. Obumseli.”

Of course, Prieto told Fox News Digital a different story earlier this week—one that paints his client as a faultless damsel in distress and her stabbing victim as a vicious attacker.

“Courtney was not arrested because it is a clear she was defending herself and was the victim of domestic violence,” he said. “As a former prosecutor with the Miami [State Attorney’s Office], the fact she has not been arrested or charged is indicative that the investigation has concluded she acted in self-defense.”

In fact, it seems that every time Prieto speaks to the media, it becomes more evident that he’s on a campaign to make his client a victim. On Thursday, he spoke to the DailyMail and even went so far as to call it “justice” that Clenney hasn’t been arrested or charged. He also made the dubious at best claim that this white woman—who stabbed a Black man to death and was taken to a hospital and then set free after crying and threatening to kill herself—never received any “special treatment.”

“Justice in this matter calls for no arrest or charges,” he said. “It is absolutely irresponsible for the family’s attorney (who was not present and has not seen the evidence in this case) to allege that the events of that evening were “unprovoked” or to insinuate that she is being afforded special treatment.”

Listen, both Handfield and Prieto are just doing what lawyers do in defending their clients and the families they’re representing, but only one attorney is completely ignoring the existence of white privilege in explaining why someone who has killed their significant other hasn’t been arrested.

And that, at the very least, does appear to be self-serving.