The homicide trial of Money App founder Bob Lee is lastly wrapping up. Accused of the crime, tech advisor Nima Momeni says he acted in self-defense.
A nasty joke “just set him off,” Momeni advised the jury. “I was in fear for my life.”
Momeni claims he deflected Lee’s oncoming knife, pinned his arm again into his chest twice, till he let go. Then, Lee walked away.
Video surveillance, nevertheless, seems to indicate Momeni stabbing Lee. Textual content messages and witness testimony counsel that Momeni believed Lee was accountable for his sister’s alleged sexual assault.
Now that each the prosecution and the protection have rested their case, the jury will resolve if Momeni is responsible of homicide. Right here’s how the whole case unfolded.
Bob Lee in 2021 (through Fortune).
April 3, 2023: The evening Bob Lee died
Momeni and Lee have been launched by means of Momeni’s sister, Khazar, just some days earlier than his loss of life. On April 3, Khazar and Lee went to the house of a person named Jeremy Boivin.
“I did not know he’s a drug dealer,” Khazar later advised the jury, “as we don’t get close to our drug dealers or invite them upstairs, even. He was introduced to me [by Lee] as a friend.”
Lee quickly wished to go away with Khazar, however she refused. So, Lee left whereas she stayed behind and willingly took the date rape drug Boivin supplied.
“He brought me a big tank of nitrous, and he had a big bottle of a liter of GHB,” Khazar stated. “He gave me, like, this sweet little drink, a little shot. And I drank it.”
“I thought I could trust him,” Khazar stated on the stand.
“I remember waking up twice: One time he pulled down my pants and slapped my ass. And another time he grabbed my ass, but I couldn’t move or do anything.”
In a panic, Khazar known as her brother. Nima Momeni got here to choose her up, and she or he confided in him in regards to the assault. “I was shocked at how mature he was about it,” she stated, describing him as calm and measured.
Nevertheless, textual content messages from that evening present Momeni was livid — and held Lee accountable.
Khazar Momeni and her husband on their first day in courtroom (through The San Francisco Customary).
Later that night, Lee and Momeni have been collectively at Khazar’s house in Millennium Tower. The siblings keep that every part was pleasant. Lee acquired a trip in Momeni’s automobile round 2am and so they drove to the Rincon Hill neighborhood, the place surveillance footage exhibits a person who appears to be like like Momeni stabbing a person resembling Lee.
Momeni left in his white BMW; Lee staggered down the road, collapsed, and died.
Within the days that observe, Momeni employed prison protection legal professional Paula Canny and personal investigator Brian Hedley.
On April 13, Nima Momeni was arrested.
Early days of the Bob Lee homicide case
Could 3, 2023: Nima Momeni pleads not responsible. Nevertheless, the decide guidelines Momeni will stay in custody with out bail.
Could 4, 2023: Momeni’s lacking cellphone turns into a degree of competition. Prosecutors are eager to analyze, believing it might comprise key proof associated to the case. Canny dismisses its absence as inconsequential, calling it a coincidence; that the lacking cellphone was not a deliberate try to destroy proof.
In the meantime, Momeni’s mom, sister, and brother-in-law safe their very own authorized group.
Could 30, 2023: The courtroom is shocked to be taught that Momeni’s lawyer Canny has been fired. Distinguished attorneys Bradford Cohen and Saam Zangeneh, who’ve beforehand represented rappers Drake and Vanilla Ice, exchange her.
Canny expresses disappointment however tells reporters, “Shit happens in representing people. It’s just like that, you know?”
Proof dictates the case will go to trial — however will or not it’s honest?
July 31, 2023: The preliminary listening to begins. The protection questions the prosecution’s advised premeditated, “honor killing” motive.
Why was the knife by no means fingerprinted, the protection additional questions? A police officer explains that the knife’s deal with was rubber, rendering fingerprint evaluation impractical.
It’s famous {that a} homeless man on the scene of the crime wasn’t questioned by police. The protection asks if vital proof could have been ignored.
August 1, 2023: A decide guidelines that Nima Momeni’s case will go to trial. Merely put, there’s an excessive amount of proof to dismiss the case.
The photograph of Momeni in jail that sparked considerations of an unfair trial (through The San Francisco Customary).
November 30, 2023: Momeni’s attorneys attempt to argue {that a} trial wouldn’t be honest. They file a movement to maneuver the trial out of San Francisco on the grounds that town’s giant inhabitants of techies view Lee as a “celebrity.”
March 15, 2024: The request to maneuver the trial out of town is denied. A survey exhibits that whereas many locals have been conscious of the case, few had robust opinions.
Court docket learns Momeni reenacted stabbing, despatched curious texts
September 6, 2024: New proof is offered by the District Legal professional’s Workplace, casting doubt on Momeni’s self-defense declare. A video filmed in a public parking zone on April 10, 2023, exhibits Momeni making three stabbing motions whereas talking to a non-public investigator — which prosecutors say are the identical because the stab wounds Lee suffered days prior.
They level out that Momeni doesn’t point out a wrestle on this reenactment.
The jury then hears particulars of Khazar’s alleged sexual assault. Textual content messages are proven during which Momeni tells his sister he had “started preparing for the rape case against both of them” — presumably which means Lee and Boivin.
The prosecution additionally claims that Momeni’s textual content messages after Lee’s loss of life are damning. He seemingly tried to cowl his tracks by writing to his sister, “I don’t know what [Lee] ended up doing at the bar or strip club, I just came home.” After all, movies positioned the pair collectively in Rincon Hill.
And when Khazar writes to her brother on April 5 that she’s going to “get to the bottom of this and find out what happened to bob” and asks “where [did you] drop him off,” Momeni dodges the query.
September 18, 2024: Three main wins for the prosecution: Lee’s nickname ‘Crazy Bob,’ giant chunks of proof from his cellphone, and a movement to exclude the homicide weapon are faraway from the case. The protection was utilizing Lee’s nickname to assist the story that he was the aggressor as an alternative of Momeni.
Surveillance footage of Bob Lee staggering down the road following the stabbing on April 3.
The Bob Lee homicide trial begins
October 14: In opening statements, each side current their totally different variations of occasions to a packed courtroom.
October 15: A 911 name from Lee in his last moments is performed, and investigators testify in regards to the blood path and proof collected on the scene.
The protection once more questions why the homeless man wasn’t interviewed.
October 16: Borzoyeh Mohazzabi, shut pal of Lee, testifies he overheard Lee on the cellphone with Momeni. Lee was “interrogated” by Momeni in regards to the perceived sexual assault on Khazar.
October 17: Khazar takes the stand. Questioned by prosecutors, she denies that her brother killed Lee and maintains Jeremy Bovin sexually assaulted her on the evening of April 3.
October 22: Khazar reiterates that Lee by no means touched her. She says that her brother and Lee “liked each other” when requested by prosecutors if there was “any kind of bad blood” between them within the hour and a half they spent collectively earlier than Lee’s loss of life.
She describes Lee as “all over the place” and “aggressive” within the days earlier than April 3.
Khazar additionally stated that she had been sexually assaulted by her father.
Bob Lee’s ex-wife thrown out of courtroom, protection asks for mistrial
October 23: Lee’s ex-wife Krista is barred from the courtroom after accusing Khazar of taking part in the sufferer on the stand. Within the hallway throughout a break, Krista had phrases about Khazar’s declare that Lee’s household had intimidated her throughout the trial.
“Our family is the one that got murdered,” Krista says. “She can go fuck herself.”
The decide was beforehand requested to banish Lee’s ex-wife for referring to Khazar as “the whore of high tower,” which was refused. At this time’s outburst does the trick.
In the meantime, on the stand, Khazar admits that her reminiscence of the occasions are foggy as a result of she was below the affect of a number of medication, together with GHB. Nevertheless, she insists that she remains to be capable of bear in mind pivotal moments.
October 31: San Francisco police criminalist Alain Oyafuso takes the stand to elucidate the DNA evaluation in easy phrases. Oyafuso confirms that a lot of the DNA on the blade of the knife matched Lee’s, whereas a lot of the DNA on the deal with matched Momeni’s.
Nevertheless, small doubts have been solid as a result of each the deal with and the blade contained small traces of low-quality DNA from one other supply. This raises questions from Momeni’s attorneys.
Khazar Momeni testified Bob Lee was not murdered by her brother (through Mission Native).
November 4: Jurors are proven the video captured within the days following Bob Lee’s loss of life, during which Momeni is seen reenacting the stabbing.
Within the video, Momeni is seen making three stabbing motions — two towards the decrease physique and one greater at shoulder stage — as he talks to Brian Hedley, the non-public investigator he employed. Momeni makes a throwing movement, which prosecutors counsel imitates how he discarded the knife.
Protection attorneys object to the video being offered, arguing that it violates attorney-client privilege and was recorded on non-public property. However the decide guidelines in favor of the prosecution.
November 5: Lead investigator Sgt. Brent Dittmer testifies that within the days following Lee’s loss of life, Momeni’s brother-in-law searched on-line for tactics to erase iPhones. Dittmer discovered this suspicious — notably as a result of Momeni had already given his cellphone to his lawyer and each Momeni and his sister had obtained new telephones.
November 6: Momeni’s attorneys ask for a mistrial on the grounds that lead investigator Dittmer stated — unprompted — that Momeni has by no means been out on bond. This info could taint the jury, the protection argues, as a result of it implies he’s in jail. Jurors are sometimes shielded from this type of info.
The decide denies the movement.
Nima Momeni takes the stand
November 7: Momeni’s protection group opens its arguments. DNA professional Dr. Greg Hampikian challenges the DNA proof offered by the prosecution.
In response to Hampikian, a key footnote was omitted from their report. This footnote, he testified, would have modified the interpretation of Momeni’s DNA match to the knife deal with.
The protection additionally offered testimony from Aranza Villegas, the pal of Khazar who was together with her at Jeremy Boivin’s house on April 3. She confirmed that Momeni appeared calm when he got here to choose up his sister.
November 13: The protection continues its arguments by introducing forensic pathologist Dr. John Marraccini to the stand. He testifies that the stab wounds Lee sustained have been per Momeni’s declare of self-defense.
Marraccini believes that the shallow knife wound on Lee’s hip means that Lee was making an attempt to stab Momeni. However he additionally acknowledged different eventualities, together with the prosecution’s principle.
Later, Nima Momeni’s testimony begins. He tells the jury that Lee attacked him as a result of he advised that he must be at house along with his household as an alternative of “fucking around in strip clubs.” Lee’s ex-wife and two children stay close to San Francisco; Lee was on the town for a number of days earlier than heading house to Florida.
The remark “just set him off,” Momeni claims. “I was in fear for my life.”
“He’s yelling, cussing at me, starts going around, circling, moving around me, then gets in my face,” he stated.
Momeni says he deflected Lee’s oncoming knife, pinned his arm again into his chest twice, till he let go. Then, Lee walked away.
“He was just casually walking away on his phone, just texting or whatever he was doing.” Momeni maintains he had no concept his pal was injured.
Nima Momeni earlier than April 3, 2023 (through New York Publish).
As for Momeni’s actions after that evening, he says he discovered Lee had died on the morning of April 5, main him to contact a lawyer and investigator for recommendation. And when requested in regards to the reenactment video, Momeni claims he was really reenacting Lee.
Momeni insists he was by no means offended with anybody on April 3 and that he “never” had any ailing will in the direction of Lee.
“I feel awful, to his family, to himself. He didn’t deserve it, I don’t think anybody deserves that. I don’t know why that had to happen.”
November 14: Momeni faces a contentious cross-examination. Prosecutor Talai makes an attempt to poke holes in Momeni’s narrative. Momeni will get combative, evasive, and emotional on the stand.
Protection rests sans bombshell, trial involves a detailed
November 19: Retired SFPD officer Steve Pomatto testifies that Momeni doubtless acted in self-defense. Nevertheless, the prosecution questions his credibility, and highlights that Pomatto had earned practically $10,000 for being a key witness to Momeni’s protection. Whereas on the stand for 2 days, he was being paid $400 per hour.
Later in courtroom, the protection rests its case — however fails to ship on a promise that bombshell proof can be revealed. As a substitute, his attorneys say it’ll are available in closing arguments.
“We’re gonna tie it all up in closing,” Momeni’s lawyer Saam Zangeneh stated. “There’s going to be some explosions in closing.”
Closing arguments are scheduled for December 2.