Nima Momeni found guilty of killing Cash App founder Bob Lee

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Nima Momeni, a tech worker accused of stabbing and killing Cash App founder Bob Lee underneath the Bay Bridge in San Francisco in April 2023, was found guilty of second-degree murder Tuesday morning by 12 jurors after a two-month trial in San Francisco Superior Court.

Momeni, sitting in the courtroom next to his lawyer Tony Brass, did not react as the verdict was read. The conviction means Momeni faces 16 years to life in prison when he is sentenced. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Jurors deliberated for seven days over the past two weeks before reaching their verdict late Monday afternoon. Because they reached the verdict so late, the verdict was not read until Tuesday morning.

Outside of the courtroom, Lee’s brother Tim Oliver Lee said he wished that the jury could have found Momeni guilty of first-degree murder but praised the verdict.

“We’re extremely thankful to the district attorney’s office. We’re extremely thankful for the jury. We think justice was done here today,” he said.

In brief remarks to the press, Momeni’s defense team said they were disappointed in the verdict and planned to appeal.

“We were surprised that this wasn’t the lesser verdict. We’ll continue to see what we can do to fight for Mr. Momeni,” Brass said.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins praised her prosecutors, the jury and the San Francisco Police Department after the verdict was read and said her heart was with Lee’s family.

Prosecutors said Momeni killed Lee in a fit of rage because Lee had been doing drugs with Momeni’s sister, Khazar Momeni, and introduced her to a drug dealer who sexually assaulted her.

Nima Momeni’s defense team said he acted in self-defense and that Lee was on a multi-day drug bender using cocaine, alcohol and other substances that made him unstable and unpredictable in the days before the stabbing.

Testifying in his own defense during the trial, Nima Momeni said that while he and Lee were alone underneath the Bay Bridge on the night of Lee’s death, he told a “bad joke” that set Lee off. Lee began circling him, he testified, and pulled a knife out of his jacket pocket. Momeni said he disarmed Lee before fleeing the scene and did not know Lee was injured when he fled.

Logical inconsistencies abounded in Nima Momeni’s telling of events, however. Prosecutors grilled him on the “bad joke” explanation and asked him why he didn’t call the police when he learned Lee had died.

Government witnesses said at trial that Lee was stabbed three times, including one wound that punctured his heart. They showed grainy video of the stabbing and street surveillance footage of a wounded Lee, bounding up Main Street before collapsing.

Forensic experts testified that only Nima Momeni’s DNA was on the handle of the knife — and only Lee’s DNA was on the blade.

Khazar Momeni also testified during the trial. Her brother and Lee were last seen leaving her Millennium Tower residence the night Lee was killed. She said Lee was not himself and was heavily intoxicated in the days and hours before his death, bolstering the defense’s argument.

She said she too was heavily under the influence during the weeks before and after Lee’s death, and that his drug dealer friend Jeremy Boivin had sexually assaulted her after giving her GHB, a date rape drug.

Her brother, however, was not mad at Lee, and was instead angry with Boivin, Khazar Momeni said. The night of the murder, she testified, her brother and Lee were getting along, sharing drinks and all was normal when they left her apartment.

Prosecutors grilled Khazar Momeni on her recollection of events, accusing her of being evasive and only answering clear questions from the defense team. Khazar Momeni paid for her brother’s lawyers.

During closing arguments, Nima Momeni’s defense attorney Saam Zangeneh showed a video from The Battery, a club in San Francisco, in which Lee and a friend appear to sniff drugs with an object similar in size and dimensions to the knife.

If the object in the video was indeed a knife, it may answer one of the trial’s key questions: why Lee had a knife on him in the first place.