SAN FRANCISCO – A jury in San Francisco on Tuesday found an East Bay technology consultant guilty of second-degree murder within the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee. The sentence calls for a life sentence of 16 years and rejected the defendant's claim that he acted in self-defense.
Jurors took seven days to return their verdict against Emeryville resident Nima Momeni within the April 4, 2023, death of Lee, a well-liked tech mogul who was found staggering on a deserted downtown street Left a trail of blood behind him and called for help. Lee, 43, later died at a hospital.
“We believe justice has been done here today,” the victim’s brother, Tim Oliver Lee, told reporters. “What matters today is that we had a guilty verdict and Nima Momeni will be gone for a very long time.”
Prosecutors said Momeni planned the attack on Lee by driving him to a secluded spot under the Bay Bridge and stabbing him thrice, including once in the center, with a knife he took from his sister's kitchen. They say Momeni was indignant at Lee for introducing his younger sister to a drug dealer who allegedly gave her GHB and other drugs after which sexually abused her.
But Momeni testified on the witness stand that Lee was the one who attacked him with a knife and was indignant after the technical adviser scolded him for spending more time together with his family that night as a substitute of going to a strip club to look. Momeni, who studies martial arts, claimed self-defense and said he didn’t know he had fatally injured Lee or that Lee was even injured.
The case has garnered national attention, due partly to Lee's status within the tech world. His death initially sparked a debate about public safety in San Francisco, with X owner Elon Musk posting on the social media site that “violent crime in San Francisco is terrible and even when attackers are caught, they are often immediately released .”
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the verdict shows the killing was a targeted crime and not an example of random lawlessness in the city.
“We are a city committed to accountability, we are a city committed to public safety,” Jenkins told reporters after the hearing.
Momeni, 40, has been in custody since his arrest in April 2023, when he was charged with first-degree murder.
Family members of both men faithfully attended the trial. Mahnaz Tayarani, the defendant's mother, sat on one side of the courtroom while Lee's father, brother and ex-wife sat on the other side, shying away from Lee's autopsy photos and the 911 call.
On Tuesday, Tayarani had tears in her eyes as she called the verdict unfair.
“My son is not the person they think he is,” she said. “He’s very kind, he’s very loving, respectful and caring.”
The jury received the case, which began on October 14th, on December 4th. They made their decision late Monday afternoon, but the court decided to announce the verdict on Tuesday morning. The courtroom was packed with Lee's family, friends and journalists who had followed the high-profile trial.
Lee had developed the mobile payment service Cash App and was chief product officer of the cryptocurrency MobileCoin when he died. He had moved from the Bay Area to Miami, where his ex-wife Krista Lee lives with their two children.
Both sides agreed on the sequence of events that led to the two men's encounter in the early hours of April 4th. However, there is no independent documentation of what they said to each other or who produced the knife, nor is any video of their final encounter grainy.
Prosecutors said the video showed Momeni stabbing Lee three times. They also said the murder weapon – a paring knife nearly eight inches long with a blade about four inches long – had Momeni's DNA on the handle and Lee's DNA on the blade.
Two of Momeni's five lawyers were in court Tuesday, the others attending via Zoom from Florida.
“This is obviously very disappointing for us,” said Tony Brass, adding that the team would consider an appeal.
In the end, the jury rejected a first-degree murder charge, which required prosecutors to prove that Momeni acted with malice, premeditation and premeditation. This element is not required for second degree murder.
Jurors declined to speak to the press Tuesday.
The afternoon before the stabbing, Lee and Khazar Momeni had been taking drugs and drinking at the home of a drug dealer Lee knew. Lee left before Nima Momeni went to pick up his sister, who told him she had been attacked.
A friend of Lee's testified that Momeni then questioned Lee over the phone about what happened to his sister while he was at the drug dealer's apartment. He sent text messages saying the two men were creeps and sexual predators.
Momeni later spent time with Lee at his sister's apartment until she kicked her out, saying she needed to sleep.
Surveillance video shows the two men leaving Khazar Momeni's posh apartment around 2 a.m. and getting into Nima Momeni's BMW. Other surveillance footage then shows them getting out of the car near the Bay Bridge, where the stabbing occurred.
Momeni testified that he stopped his car after hitting a pothole, causing Lee to spill the beer he was holding. Momeni said he then joked and suggested that Lee spend the last night of his visit with his family instead of trying to find a strip club to keep the party going.
Then, he says, Lee snapped, yelled at him for questioning his parenting skills, pulled the knife from his jacket pocket and attacked.
“I was afraid for my life,” Momeni said during the trial in testimony that was rambling and controversial.
He said Lee walked away from the encounter and showed no signs of injury. He said he didn't realize Lee had died until the next day.
“I feel terrible for his family, for himself,” Momeni said on the witness stand. “He doesn't deserve it. I don’t think anyone deserves that.”
Prosecutors ridiculed Momeni's story, pointing out that he never called police to report Lee's alleged attack, not even after learning that Lee was suffering from stab wounds on the street where he last saw him had died.
Prosecutors also showed text messages Khazar Momeni sent to her brother in which he asked where he dropped Lee off – a question he ignored. She texted Lee to see if her brother had been “tough” on him and to thank him for “handling it with class.”
Originally published:
image credit : www.mercurynews.com