Jury finds tech consultant guilty of 2nd degree murder in stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee
SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco jury that deliberated for seven days has found tech consultant Nima Momeni guilty of second degree murder in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee after a high-profile and weeks-long trial. This is a lesser conviction than Momeni's initial charge of first degree murder.
Momeni will face a sentence of 15 years to life in prison for second degree murder.
The verdict was read in court Tuesday morning.
Momeni was accused of stabbing and killing tech executive and Cash App Founder Bob Lee in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023.
Randall Knox, an attorney who briefly represented Momeni's mother, says the jury had a lot to consider.
"You start with do people agree it was premeditated and deliberate with malice aforethought. If 12 people don't agree with that, then they consider if it's second degree murder...If they don't agree that he intended to kill him with that mental state...it could conceivably be reduced to voluntary manslaughter," Knox said.
San Francisco sister station ABC7 News has been in court since the start of the trial. Reporters say the testimonies given throughout the trial were conflicting.
Legal analyst Steven Clark believes it could be Momeni's own testimony that could have ultimately swayed jurors.
"I think the big question for this jury is what did they think of Mr. Momeni's testimony? Did they give him the benefit of the doubt? And how did that play into their verdict?" said Clark.
TIMELINE: Events leading up to fatal SF stabbing of Bob Lee shown in court documents
While Tuesday's verdict will end the trial, Clark says there will likely be more court appearances for Momeni.
"If Momeni is convicted of any charge, what will happen next is about six weeks from now there will be a sentencing hearing where both sides will present information to the court, as to what is the appropriate sentence based on a number of factors," Clark said.
Prosecutors argued Momeni targeted Lee because he believed his sister, Khazar Momeni, was drugged and sexually assaulted by Jeremy Boivin, a man that Lee had introduced her to.
Defense attorneys argued that it was Lee who pulled a knife on Momeni in a drug-fueled rage after Momeni made a bad joke calling into question Lee's priorities as a father. On the stand, Momeni testified he said to Lee, "If it were my last night in town, I'd be hanging out with my family not (expletive) around in strip clubs."
In its opening statements back in October, the prosecution played Lee's 911 call for jurors in which he pleaded for help 47 times. Lee's family, in court much of the trial, said it was the first time they had heard the call by choice.
Testimony throughout the trial was conflicting depending on who was on the stand.
SFPD Officer Rosalyn Check was a crime scene investigator who testified early in the trial she did not swab the murder weapon knife for fingerprints because of its rubber handle - instead, swabbing it only for DNA. Something that defense attorneys hammered to jurors called into question the police investigation.
Lee's friend, Bo Mohazzabi, who was with Lee hours before he was murdered, testified that Lee received a call from Nima Momeni in which Momeni was interrogating him about what had happened to his sister earlier that night. Mohazzabi also testified to the alcohol and drugs he saw Lee consuming that night and that he was acting as he usually did.
One of the most highly anticipated witnesses was Khazar Momeni who testified Jeremy Boivin gave her GHB (the date rape drug) and grabbed her behind. Lee and Mohazzabi had been at Boivin's place as well but left. Momeni testified that Mohazzabi was making her feel uncomfortable. As they left, her friend, Aranza Villegas arrived. Villegas, a witness for the defense, testified that Khazar Momeni was being dramatic that evening. Khazar Momeni testified she had known Lee for approximately eight years when they met at the private social club The Battery. She also described Nima as being close to her and a protective older brother. In text messages to her brother shown in court, she said no one had touched her. But on the stand, she said she was using a lot of substances at the time and would sometimes have a difficult time recognizing when someone was hurting her because of her upbringing which included abuse at the hands of her father.
Boivin did not testify during the trial but was listed on the defense witness list. Momeni's defense attorneys told reporters that Boivin has an open drug case and wanted immunity to testify, something defense attorneys can't provide. In an emailed statement to ABC7 News reporter Melanie Woodrow, Boivin's attorney, Valery Nechay, called Khazar Momeni's narrative false and said she had a voluntary, sexual relationship with Boivin.
On the stand, Nima Momeni testified his sister had an open marriage with her husband, prominent plastic surgeon Dino Elyassnia. Momeni said the couple had rules they respected but that when Elyassnia found Momeni in their marital bed with Boivin, he was furious, especially after Nima Momeni and Elyassnia had rescued Khazar the night before from Boivin's place after she called them to say she was drugged and didn't know what country she was in.
SFPD Sergeant Goff testified that he was assigned to do surveillance on Nima Momeni following Bob Lee's murder. That included surveillance of Momeni speaking with a private investigator outside of his former attorney's office. In it, prosecutors said Momeni could be seen making three distinct stabbing motions reflective of Lee's three stab wounds. But during his testimony, Momeni told jurors he wasn't demonstrating what he did but rather how Bob Lee didn't and did come at him with the knife after he made that bad joke calling into question Lee's priorities as a father.
Forensic Pathologist Dr. Ellen Moffatt testified Lee's cause of death was multiple stab wounds and the manner of death was homicide.
SFPD Sergeant Dittmer testified that Dr. Elyassnia googled "How to erase an iPhone" days after Lee's murder. Also, he deleted the search results. SFPD never saw what was on Khazar Momeni's phones because the software used couldn't get through her passwords.
In making their case, Nima Momeni's defense attorneys suggested that the prosecution's evidence around the knife was inadequate and questioned both the chain of custody and DNA evidence, which showed that 99% of Momeni's DNA was on the handle of the knife. An attempt at getting a mistrial was denied by the judge. Momeni's attorneys made a motion for one suggesting Dittmer had revealed to jurors in his testimony that Momeni never received bond, thereby tainting the jury.
Momeni's defense team called Greg Hampikian, a DNA expert, who testified about the potential for false inclusion or exclusion in DNA testing. He admitted on cross that he received $12,000 to testify, plus travel expenses and a hotel stay.
MORE: Accused killer's sister describes Bob Lee as 'aggressive,' high on drugs during cross-examination
Dr. John Marraccini testified about the drugs in Bob Lee's system, including cocaine and ketamine. He also testified that the knife wound to his hip could be that the person wielding the knife had it directed back at him.
In his testimony, Nima Momeni described hanging out with Lee at his sister's place after rescuing her from Boivin's apartment. He said Lee had assured him Boivin was a good guy. At Khazar's request, Lee and Momeni left her apartment. Surveillance video showed them in an elevator at Millennium Tower. They got into Momeni's vehicle and he testified they were figuring out where to go, the bars were closed and the strip clubs were no longer serving alcohol. Momeni said that Lee spilled a drink in his car and that Momeni pulled over so that Lee could wipe it up. He says Lee found his sister's whippits under the seat and began doing them as well as making noises. Momeni said Lee got out of the car and he followed. That's when Momeni said he made that bad joke and Lee pulled a knife on him. He said Lee walked away, not making any noises suggesting he had been stabbed. Momeni picked up the knife and threw it over the Caltrans fence where investigators later found it. The Joseph Joseph knife was the same brand of knife found in Khazar Momeni's apartment.
During cross-examination, Momeni told prosecutors that when he learned of Bob Lee's death, he thought it was possible he had been stabbed and killed by someone else that night after the interaction they had involving a knife. Momeni was asked why he parked his car at his mom's house after Lee's murder. He said it previously had a smashed window that was fixed but acting up and so he parked it at his mom's.
Next on the stand was SFPD Sergeant Steven Pomatto, who also provided testimony and a demonstration of how Momeni may have redirected the knife. On cross-examination, prosecutors asked Pomatto about lying about being a Navy SEAL in order to join a specialized group within SFPD. He said it was a misunderstanding.
Prosecutors called three rebuttal character witnesses who testified that Bob was a teddy bear who loved hugs and would often diffuse tense situations. They said they had never seen him with a knife.
During closing arguments, Momeni's defense team showed jurors video of Lee outside The Battery with Mohazzabi in which they said it looked like Lee was allegedly doing drugs off a knife. Defense attorneys suggested to jurors this was the murder weapon and that Lee had brought the knife, not Momeni. Prosecutors again emphasized that Lee's DNA was not on the handle of the knife.
