Courtney Clenny, a TikToker and Instagram model known online as Courtney Taylor, is set to stand trial on April 27th, 2026. She has been charged with second-degree m*rder following the passing of her boyfriend, 27-year-old Christian Toby Abamelli, in April 2022. If convicted, she faces the possibility of spending the rest of her life behind bars.
Police were called to a luxury apartment building in Miami where they found Abamelli unresponsive. First responders arrived to find him bleeding heavily from a stab wound, and he later lost his life to those injuries.
Clenny did not deny her involvement, but told investigators she had acted in self-defense, claiming that Abamelli had pushed her and thrown her to the floor, after which she grabbed a knife and threw it at him from approximately 10 feet away.
However, the medical examiner’s findings complicated that account. The autopsy concluded that Abamelli passed away from a forceful downward thrust from a blade that went three inches into his chest, piercing a major artery. Investigators argued the fatal wound could not have been caused by a knife thrown from that distance, and this discrepancy has remained the central point of tension throughout the case.
The couple’s relationship had a turbulent history. A former neighbor in Austin, Texas, where they previously lived, reported that police were called to their residence multiple times due to frequent and intense arguments. After moving to Miami, their building was reportedly preparing to evict them over repeated disturbances. Video footage from a trip to Aspen, taken just months before Abamelli’s passing, also showed Clenny striking him repeatedly during an argument.
Clenny was not arrested on the day of the incident. She was taken into custody four months later, in August 2022, at a rehab facility in Hawaii, and was extradited back to Florida to face charges. Her parents were also arrested on felony charges related to the alleged unauthorized access of Abamelli’s laptop, though those charges were later dropped after a judge ruled that investigators had violated attorney-client privilege.
Clenny has been held without bond since her arrest, with multiple requests for release denied by the court. Her defense team has argued not only for self-defense but also that the charge should be reduced to manslaughter rather than second-degree murder.
As the trial date approaches, Clenny made headlines again during a recent motions hearing when she was observed sticking out her tongue and puckering at people in the courtroom before proceedings even began. The hearing itself centered on disputes over expert witnesses and the admissibility of secret recordings Abamelli had made of Clenny prior to his passing.
While most of those recordings were ruled inadmissible, the judge allowed recordings made in the apartment’s lobby and on the balcony to be used at trial, citing no reasonable expectation of privacy in those areas.
Twelve jurors will ultimately be asked to decide whether this was an act of self-defense within a volatile relationship or an intentional act.
