A San Francisco jury on Tuesday discovered a tech marketing consultant responsible of second-degree homicide within the stabbing demise of Cash App founder Bob Lee, which carries a sentence of 16 years to life, rejecting the defendant’s declare that he had acted in self protection.
Jurors took seven days to ship their verdict in opposition to Nima Momeni within the April 4, 2023, demise of Lee, a beloved tech mogul who was discovered staggering on a abandoned downtown road, dripping a path of blood and calling for assist. Lee, 43, later died at a hospital.
“We suppose justice was accomplished right here immediately,” the sufferer’s brother, Tim Oliver Lee, advised reporters. “What issues immediately is that we had a responsible verdict and Nima Momeni goes away for a really very long time.”
Prosecutors mentioned Momeni deliberate the assault on Lee, driving him to an remoted spot underneath the Bay Bridge and stabbing him 3 times, together with as soon as to the guts, with a knife he took from his sister’s kitchen. They say Momeni was offended with Lee for introducing his youthful sister to a drug vendor she says gave her GHB and different medicine after which sexually assaulted her.
But Momeni testified on the stand that Lee was the one who attacked him with a knife, offended after the tech marketing consultant chided him about spending extra time together with his household as an alternative of trying to find a strip membership that evening. Momeni, who research martial arts, claimed self-defense and mentioned he did not understand he had fatally wounded Lee or that Lee was even damage.
The case has drawn nationwide consideration, partly given Lee’s standing within the tech world. At first, his demise enflamed debate over public security in San Francisco as X proprietor Elon Musk took to the social media web site to publish that “violent crime in SF is horrific and even when attackers are caught, they’re usually launched instantly.”
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins mentioned the decision confirmed that the killing was a focused crime and never an instance of random lawlessness within the metropolis.
“We are a metropolis dedicated to accountability, we’re a metropolis dedicated to public security,” Jenkins advised reporters after the listening to.
Momeni, 40, has been in custody since his arrest in April 2023, when he was charged with homicide within the first diploma.
Family members of each males have faithfully attended the trial. Mahnaz Tayarani, mom of the defendant, has sat on one aspect of the courtroom room whereas Lee’s father, brother and ex-wife sat on the opposite, recoiling at Lee’s post-mortem pictures and 911 name.
On Tuesday, Tayarani had tears in her eyes as she known as the decision unfair.
“My son shouldn’t be the person who they suppose,” she mentioned. “He’s very type, he’s very loving and respectful and caring.”
Jurors acquired the case, which began Oct. 14, on Dec. 4. They reached their determination late Monday afternoon, however the courtroom selected to announce the decision Tuesday morning. The courtroom was crowded with Lee’s household and pals and journalists who’ve been following the high-profile trial.
Lee had created cellular fee service Cash App and was the chief product officer of the cryptocurrency MobileCoin when he died. He had moved to Miami from the San Francisco Bay Area, the place his ex-wife Krista Lee lives with their two youngsters.
Both sides agreed on the sequence of occasions that led to the 2 males going through off within the early morning hours of April 4. But there isn’t any impartial documentation of what they mentioned to one another or who introduced out the knife, and video of their last encounter is grainy.
The prosecution mentioned the video confirmed Momeni stabbing Lee 3 times. They additionally mentioned the homicide weapon — an almost 8-inch paring knife with a roughly 4-inch blade — had Momeni’s DNA on its deal with and Lee’s DNA on the blade.
Two of Momeni’s 5 attorneys have been in courtroom Tuesday, with the others attending through Zoom from Florida.
“This is clearly very disappointing for us,” mentioned Tony Brass, including that the crew would consider for an attraction.
Jurors in the long run rejected a cost of homicide within the first diploma, which required prosecutors show that Momeni acted intentionally, willfully and with premeditation. Murder within the second diploma doesn’t require that ingredient.
Jurors on Tuesday declined to talk to the press.
The afternoon earlier than the stabbing, Lee and Khazar Momeni had been doing medicine and ingesting on the condominium of a drug vendor Lee knew. Lee left earlier than Nima Momeni went to select up his sister, who advised him she had been assaulted.
A good friend of Lee’s testified Momeni then grilled Lee over the telephone about what occurred to his sister whereas on the drug vendor’s condominium. He despatched textual content messages saying that the 2 males have been creeps and sexual predators.
Momeni later frolicked with Lee at his sister’s condominium till she kicked them out, saying she wanted to sleep.
Surveillance video exhibits the 2 males leaving Khazar Momeni’s posh condominium round 2 a.m. and stepping into Nima Momeni’s BMW. Other surveillance footage then exhibits them getting out of the automobile close to the Bay Bridge, the place the stabbing came about.
Momeni testified he stopped his automobile after going over a pothole that prompted Lee to spill the beer he was holding. Momeni mentioned he then cracked a joke suggesting Lee ought to spend the final evening of his go to with household as an alternative of looking for a strip membership to maintain the get together going.
That’s when he says Lee snapped, yelled at him about questioning his parenting abilities and pulled out the knife from his jacket pocket, and attacked.
“I used to be scared for my life,” Momeni mentioned throughout trial, in testimony that was rambling and contentious.
He mentioned Lee walked away from the encounter, and confirmed no proof of being damage. He didn’t understand Lee had died till the next day, he mentioned.
“I really feel terrible to his household, to himself,” Momeni mentioned on the stand. “He didn’t deserve it. I don’t suppose anybody deserved that.”
The prosecution mocked Momeni’s story, mentioning that he by no means known as police to report Lee’s alleged assault and even after he discovered Lee had died of stab wounds on the road the place he had final seen him.
Prosecutors additionally confirmed textual content messages Khazar Momeni despatched her brother, asking the place he had dropped off Lee — a query he sidestepped. She despatched a textual content message to Lee checking on him as a result of her brother got here “down onerous” on him and to thank him for “dealing with it with class.”