Tech consultant is on trial over the death of Cash App founder Bob Lee

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The murder trial of a technology consultant in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee began Monday, a year and a half after the widely admired entrepreneur staggered on a deserted downtown San Francisco street Looking for help was found.

Lee’s death at age 43 shocked the tech community, with other executives and engineers paying tribute to his generosity and brilliance. When Lee died, he was chief product officer of cryptocurrency platform MobileCoin. He was the father of two children.

Prosecutors say Nima Momeni, 40, planned the April 4 attack after an argument over his younger sister Khazar, with whom Lee was friends. They say Momeni took a knife from his sister’s apartment, drove Lee to a secluded area, stabbed him three times and then fled.

“Stung through his heart and left to die,” Assistant District Attorney Omid Talai told jurors in his opening statement, laying out what evidence the jury can expect.

Defense attorneys disagree and say Lee attacked Momeni under the influence of drugs.

FILE – Flowers sit on a tree in front of the building where a technology executive was fatally stabbed in San Francisco on April 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Jeff Chiu

“Our theory is that Bob had the knife and that Nima acted in self-defense,” said attorney Saam Zangeneh.

He said his client was eager to tell his side of the story, but they had not yet decided whether Momeni would testify in his defense.

Momeni, who lives in nearby Emeryville, California, has been in custody at a San Francisco hospital since his arrest days after Lee’s death. He sat with his lawyers in a dark suit.

Momeni’s mother, a constant presence at court hearings, was in court Monday along with members of Lee’s family, including his ex-wife, father and brother.

Prosecutors have said in court documents that a friend of Lee’s told homicide investigators that they had been drinking with Momeni’s sister the day before the stabbing. The friend said Momeni later asked Lee if his sister was on drugs or otherwise behaving inappropriately, and Lee said that was not the case.

Surveillance video from Lee’s last night shows him entering the posh Millennium Tower downtown, where Momeni’s sister lives with her husband, a well-known San Francisco plastic surgeon.

The video then shows Lee and Momeni leaving the building together after 2 a.m. and driving away in Momeni’s car. Lee was found around 2:30 a.m. in San Francisco’s Rincon Hill neighborhood, where there are tech offices and condominiums but little activity in the early hours.

At the crime scene, the police seized a knife with a 10 centimeter long blade. Prosecutors said tests showed Momeni’s DNA on the handle of the gun and Lee’s DNA on the bloody blade. But the defense said police should have examined the handle for fingerprints, namely Lee’s.

Momeni, who has pleaded not guilty, faces 26 years to life in prison if convicted.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Alexandra Gordon has told jurors the trial could last until mid-December.

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