SAN FRANCISCO – A tech consultant charged with murder in Cash App founder Bob Lee’s stabbing death sparred with the lead prosecutor at trial Thursday, interrupting questions asked of him with his own questions as he was grilled on his testimony.
Nima Momeni, 40, had to be told several times by the judge to provide responsive answers.
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He broke his public silence after 18 months when he took the witness stand Wednesday to explain how Lee was found staggering on a deserted downtown San Francisco street at 2:30 a.m. on April 4, 2023, dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. He later died at a hospital.
Momeni testified Lee, 43, suddenly pulled a knife on him after he cracked a “bad joke” suggesting Lee should spend his last night in the city with family instead of trying to visit a strip club. He said Lee later walked away, showing no signs he was injured.
His testimony stunned Lee's father, brother and ex-wife, who have been a steadfast presence in the criminal trial. They say Lee was big-hearted and gentle, and close to his two children and ex-wife.
“What you have seen is Nima be aggressive on the stand, you’ve seen him just trying to take control of this room, his arrogance and his entitlement are on full display here,” said the victim's brother, Timothy Oliver Lee, speaking with reporters outside the court room Thursday.
“This is insane,” he said. “All of this is ridiculous.”
The trial is in its fifth week. Momeni faces 26 years to life if convicted.
Lee’s death stunned the tech community as fellow executives and engineers penned tributes to the charismatic entrepreneur’s generosity and brilliance. He was chief product officer of cryptocurrency platform MobileCoin when he died.
Prosecutors say Momeni planned the April 4 attack after a dispute over his younger sister, Khazar Momeni, with whom Lee was friends. Momeni had picked up his sister from the home of a drug dealer introduced to her by Lee, and she said she may have been sexually assaulted after ingesting a date-rape drug called GHB.
They say Momeni was angry with Lee so he took a knife from his sister’s condo, and after the pair was kicked out of her place at 2 a.m., he drove Lee to a secluded area and stabbed him three times and then fled.
Omid Talai, the assistant district attorney, grilled Momeni on Thursday on details of exactly how the attack unfolded. He asked Momeni why he did not call police after the attack and learning Lee had died, and why he did not respond to his sister's text asking where he had dropped off Lee.
Momeni said he did not learn of Lee’s death until the following day and was puzzled by his sister’s query. He said he thought Lee could have been stabbed by someone else shortly after he saw him walk off, unharmed.
In response to questions, Momeni said he didn't know what the prosecutor was getting at, accused him of misrepresenting his statements and said he had already answered.
At one point, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Alexandra Gordon said that the prosecutor had no obligation to provide him with a printout of the texts he was questioning him about or to put them on the multimedia screen.
“Gotcha,” said Momeni, dressed in a blue suit and tie. “Thank you for clarifying.”
Prosecutors have video showing Lee and Momeni leaving Khazar Momeni's condo after 2 a.m. and driving off together in Momeni’s BMW. Video also shows the two men getting out of the car in an isolated spot by the Bay Bridge.
Prosecutors say that is where Momeni stabbed Lee, while the defense says that is where Lee attacked Momeni, erratic and aggressive from a multi-day bender of cocaine, ketamine and drinking.
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 fingerprints, namely Lee’s.
Momeni said he and Lee were on friendly terms when they left his sister's condo, but prosecutors say the defendant grilled the entrepreneur earlier in the evening about what might have happened to his sister at the drug dealer's apartment.
The prosecutor pointed out multiple times Thursday that Momeni was questioning him the way he grilled Lee.
Nima Momeni was 14 when his mother, Mahnaz Tayarani, took him and Khazar to the U.S., fleeing Iran and a husband who had inflicted years of abuse and violence on the family, she wrote in a letter submitted to the court in support of her son’s pre-trial release.
She has sat on one side of the courtroom while Lee's family members sit on the other.