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 point out 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 determine if Momeni is responsible of homicide. Right here’s how the whole case unfolded.
April 3, 2023: The evening Bob Lee died
Momeni and Lee had been launched via Momeni’s sister, Khazar, just some days earlier than his demise. 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 provided.
“He brought me a big tank of nitrous, and he had a big bottle of a liter of GHB,” Khazar mentioned. “He gave me, like, this sweet little drink, a little shot. And I drank it.”
“I thought I could trust him,” Khazar mentioned 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 referred to as her brother. Nima Momeni got here to choose her up, and she or he confided in him concerning the assault. “I was shocked at how mature he was about it,” she mentioned, describing him as calm and measured.
Nevertheless, textual content messages from that evening present Momeni was livid — and held Lee accountable.
Learn extra: MobileCoin exec Bob Lee stabbed to demise in San Francisco assault
Later that night, Lee and Momeni had been collectively at Khazar’s residence in Millennium Tower. The siblings preserve that every part was pleasant. Lee bought a journey in Momeni’s automobile round 2am and so they drove to the Rincon Hill neighborhood, the place surveillance footage exhibits a person who seems 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 comply with, 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 telephone turns into a degree of rivalry. Prosecutors are eager to analyze, believing it might include key proof associated to the case. Canny dismisses its absence as inconsequential, calling it a coincidence; that the lacking telephone was not a deliberate try to destroy proof.
In the meantime, Momeni’s mom, sister, and brother-in-law safe their very own authorized staff.
Could 30, 2023: The court docket 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 truthful?
July 31, 2023: The preliminary listening to begins. The protection questions the prosecution’s instructed 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 important proof could have been neglected.
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.
November 30, 2023: Momeni’s attorneys attempt to argue {that a} trial wouldn’t be truthful. They file a movement to maneuver the trial out of San Francisco on the grounds that town’s massive inhabitants of techies view Lee as a “celebrity.”
Of their eyes, an unfavorable picture of him in jail, printed by the San Francisco Normal, have additionally deemed the case unfair. Nevertheless, the information outlet maintains the {photograph} was first cleared with Momeni’s authorized staff.
March 15, 2024: The request to maneuver the trial out of town is denied. A survey exhibits that whereas many locals had been conscious of the case, few had robust opinions.
Courtroom learns Momeni reenacted stabbing, despatched curious texts
September 6, 2024: New proof is offered by the District Lawyer’s Workplace, casting doubt on Momeni’s self-defense declare. A video filmed in a public car parking zone on April 10, 2023, exhibits Momeni making three stabbing motions whereas chatting with a personal 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 battle on this reenactment.
The jury then hears particulars of Khazar’s alleged sexual assault. Textual content messages are proven wherein 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 demise 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.” In fact, 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,’ massive chunks of proof from his telephone, 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 a substitute of Momeni.
Learn extra: Girl allegedly provided bitcoin and intercourse for homicide
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 remaining moments is performed, and investigators testify concerning 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 buddy of Lee, testifies he overheard Lee on the telephone with Momeni. Lee was “interrogated” by Momeni concerning 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 demise.
She describes Lee as “all over the place” and “aggressive” within the days earlier than April 3.
Khazar additionally mentioned that she had been sexually assaulted by her father.
Bob Lee’s ex-wife thrown out of court docket, protection asks for mistrial
October 23: Lee’s ex-wife Krista is barred from the courtroom after accusing Khazar of enjoying 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 through 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. As we speak’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 beneath the affect of a number of medicine, together with GHB. Nevertheless, she insists that she remains to be in a position to keep in mind pivotal moments.
October 31: San Francisco police criminalist Alain Oyafuso takes the stand to clarify 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 had been forged 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.
November 4: Jurors are proven the video captured within the days following Bob Lee’s demise, wherein 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 demise, 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 telephone 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 mentioned — unprompted — that Momeni has by no means been out on bond. This data 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 data.
The decide denies the movement.
Nima Momeni takes the stand
November 7: Momeni’s protection staff opens its arguments. DNA professional Dr. Greg Hampikian challenges the DNA proof offered by the prosecution.
In line with 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 buddy of Khazar who was along with her at Jeremy Boivin’s residence 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 had been according to 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 instructed that he ought to be at residence along with his household as a substitute of “fucking around in strip clubs.” Lee’s ex-wife and two youngsters dwell close to San Francisco; Lee was on the town for just a few days earlier than heading residence 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 mentioned.
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 buddy was injured.
Learn extra: Money App facilitates donations for extremist teams
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 concerning 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 unwell will in 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 an in depth
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 almost $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 court docket, the protection rests its case — however fails to ship on a promise that bombshell proof will probably 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 mentioned. “There’s going to be some explosions in closing.”
Closing arguments are scheduled for December 2.
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