A San Francisco jury has returned a verdict in the case of the man accused of killing Cash App founder Bob Lee.
The jury reached its decision on Monday after more than two weeks of deliberation in the trial of 40-year-old Nima Momeni, which first began in October. KTVU reports.
But the verdict won’t be read until Tuesday morning in San Francisco Superior Court.
Prosecutors have argued that Momeni took Lee’s life in April 2023 on the 300 block of Main Street in the upscale Rincon Hill neighborhood.
It is alleged he stabbed Lee three times after hearing that his drug-dealing friend had plied his younger sister, Khazar, with GHB and other drugs and sexually assaulted her.
“One person called 911 and begged for help and said someone had stabbed me,” said Dane Reinstedt, assistant district attorney, adding that the other person never called police or told anyone what happened that night until the process has happened.
But lawyers say Lee, 43, was on a multi-day drug binge of cocaine and ketamine, which left him irritable and violent, and he attacked the suspect with a knife.
They said Momeni was forced to use his Krav Maga martial arts skills in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023, after making a ‘bad joke’ that upset Lee – and not realizing he had stabbed him.
A San Francisco jury has returned a verdict in the case of 40-year-old Nima Momeni, who is accused of killing Cash App founder Bob Lee.
Lee was found staggering on a deserted street in downtown San Francisco at 2:30 a.m. in April 2023, dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. He later died in a hospital
Momeni faces 26 years to life in prison if convicted of murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
The assistant district attorney mocked Momeni’s defense as he led jurors through evidence from the trial that began Oct. 14.
He said Momeni was furious with Lee for introducing Khazar, whom he was friends with, to a drug dealer who gave her GHB, known as a date-rape drug, hours before the stabbing.
They say Momeni had questioned Lee earlier in the evening about what happened to his sister at the drug dealer’s apartment and sent text messages saying the two men were creeps and sexual predators.
Momeni then met Lee at his sister’s apartment, grabbed a paring knife from her kitchen set, drove Lee to a secluded area near the Bay Bridge and stabbed him three times, including a fatal blow through the heart, on a dimly lit street. Reinstedt said.
“That protection of the defendant’s little sister led to all of this,” he said.
Momeni had learned that “his little sister, the person he is closest to in the world, was given anti-rape drugs and sexually abused. If that’s not a reason to kill someone, I don’t know what is,” said prosecutor Reinstedt.
The stab wounds were clean, clear and deep, and not the result of any form of self-defense, he said. 99 percent of the DNA on the knife handle belonged to Momeni, the prosecutor said.
Scout Lee, Bob Lee’s daughter, seen with her arms wrapped around her mother Krista Lee, right, with Tim Oliver Lee (Bob’s brother) at the Hall of Justice for the murder trial of Nima Momeni in San Francisco on Monday
The Lee family listened in tears as the courtroom heard Bob’s 911 call asking for help
Reinstedt played Lee’s April 4, 2023, 911 call, which recorded his last words.
Jurors could hear him pleading with an emergency responder for help before collapsing in a pool of blood on Main Street.
Lee’s ex-wife, his father, brother and the couple’s two children were seen in the courtroom listening, reports KRON4.
Lee’s youngest teenage child began sobbing after surveillance footage of her dying father was shown in court as he collapsed in a pool of his own blood.
“On April 4, 2023, an individual called 911 and begged for help, saying ‘someone stabbed me.’ With his last words he tells us what happened that night. He begged for help, again and again. (Momeni) never called the police.
“He never told anyone what happened that night under the Bay Bridge until a year and a half later, after he had an opportunity to review all the evidence, he was able to tell a carefully constructed story.”
Floral tributes were left near the spot where Lee was fatally stabbed. Lee’s death stunned the tech community as fellow executives and engineers paid tribute to the charismatic entrepreneur’s generosity and genius
‘One person is dead. The other person is sitting in this courtroom. The evidence now proves he is a murderer,” Reinstedt told jurors.
‘One person was stabbed. The other person did not sustain any injuries,” the prosecutor added.
‘One person was the passenger in the white BMW that drove to that quiet dark area without witnesses.
“He didn’t choose which location they went to. (Momeni) was the driver. It was an area (under the bridge) he knew, knowing it was as isolated as you could get in a city like San Francisco, knowing he had easy access to escape onto the freeway.
‘The suspect claims he acted in self-defense. Your job is to establish the facts,” Reinstedt told the jury.
Bob Lee, the creator of CashApp, was the father of two girls. Both are now teenagers and Scout, 16, seen at right, is due in court in San Francisco on Monday
The prosecutor began his closing argument with a 911 call in which Lee could be heard repeatedly asking for help.
Surveillance video of Bob wandering around on his final night and autopsy photos of his wounds were difficult to watch, said Lee’s brother, Timothy Oliver Lee. He dismissed Momeni’s explanation of events as a fabrication.
“Even though he was under the influence, he was still Bob. He was never aggressive. “He was always a teddy bear and always a great guy,” he said.
Assistant District Attorney Dane Reinstedt is seen in this courtroom sketch that features harrowing video of Bob Lee’s final moments as he lay dying outside an apartment building
But Momeni testified that he made a joke suggesting Lee should spend his last night on the town with family instead of trying to find a strip club to keep the party going.
At that point, Lee suddenly pulled out a knife, Momeni said. He said Lee later walked away and showed no signs of being injured.
“I was afraid for my life,” Momeni said in an earlier testimony that was at times stormy and controversial. “I had to defend myself.”
Lee was found staggering on a deserted street in downtown San Francisco at 2:30 a.m., dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. He later died in a hospital.
Jurors were allowed to ask questions, asking through San Francisco Superior Court Judge Alexandra Gordon why Momeni did not call the police either after Lee’s knife attack or after Momeni realized Lee had been stabbed to death.
A knife recovered from the area where Lee was stabbed showed Momeni’s DNA on the handle, but the defense said the handle should have been tested for Lee’s fingerprints.