A San Francisco jury found tech consultant Nima Momeni guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee.
Jurors took seven days to deliver their verdict against Momeni in the April 4, 2023, death of Lee, a beloved tech mogul who was found staggering on a deserted downtown street, dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. Lee, 43, later died in hospital.
Momeni took Lee's life on the 300 block of Main Street in the ritzy Rincon Hill neighborhood after hearing that his drug-dealing friend plied his younger sister, Khazar, with GHB and other drugs and sexually assaulted her.
'One person called 911 pleading for help, saying somebody stabbed me,' said Dane Reinstedt, assistant district attorney, adding that the other person never called police or told anyone what happened that night until the trial.
Lee was on a multi-day drug bender of cocaine and ketamine that made him agitated and violent, and that he attacked the defendant with a knife.
Defense attorneys said Momeni used his martial arts skills in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023, after 'making a 'bad joke' that upset Lee.
Lee's brother Timothy Oliver Lee said the family was satisfied with the verdict, reported CBS News Bay Area.
'We we're happy with the result today. We're happy that Nima Momeni won't be on the streets, no longer has the opportunity to harm anyone else in this world,' he said. 'The verdict of murder two will put him away for a long time.'
A San Francisco jury found tech consultant Nima Momeni (pictured) guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee
Lee was found staggering on a deserted downtown San Francisco street at 2:30am in April 2023, dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. He later died at a hospital
A conviction of murder in the second degree carries a sentence of 16 years to life in this case.
Lee had created mobile payment service Cash App and was the chief product officer of the cryptocurrency MobileCoin when he died.
He had moved to Miami from the San Francisco Bay Area, where his ex-wife Krista Lee lives with their two children.
The assistant district attorney mocked Momeni's defense as he walked jurors through evidence from the trial that began on October 14.
He said Momeni was furious with Lee for introducing Khazar, with whom he was friends, to a drug dealer who gave her GHB, known as a date-rape drug, hours before the stabbing.
They say Momeni grilled Lee earlier in the evening about what happened to his sister at the drug dealer's apartment, and sent text messages saying that the two men were creeps and sexual predators.
Momeni then met up with Lee at his sister's condo, took a paring knife from her kitchen set, drove Lee to a secluded area by the Bay Bridge and stabbed him three times, including a fatal blow through his heart, on a dimly lit street, Reinstedt said.
Prosecutor, Dane Reinstedt, can be seen in this courtroom sketch showing harrowing video of Bob Lee's final moments as he lay dying outside an apartment building
The puncture wounds were clean, clear and deep, and not the result of any kind of self-defense tussle, according to the prosecutor. He said 99 percent of the DNA on the handle of the knife belonged to Momeni.
Surveillance video shows the two men leaving the posh condo of Khazar Momeni around 2 am and getting into Momeni's BMW.
Other footage then shows them getting out of the car in an isolated section of the city by the Bay Bridge.
Momeni testified he stopped his car after going over a pothole that caused Lee to spill the beer he was holding.
Momeni said he then cracked a joke suggesting Lee should spend his last night visiting the city with family instead of trying to find a strip club to keep the party going.
Momeni's testimony was at times rambling and contentious.
Lee was seen in video footage desperately banging on the doors to an apartment complex as he searched for help
Bob Lee, the CashApp creator was a father to two girls. Both are now teenagers with Scout, 16, seen right, attending court in San Francisco on Monday
Reinstedt played Lee's 911 call from April 4, 2023, that recorded his final words.
Jurors could hear him begging an emergency dispatcher for help before he collapsed on Main Street in a pool of blood.
Lee's devastated daughter, Scout Lee, 16, could be heard sobbing as harrowing video footage of her dying father was played to the jury.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14202759/nima-momeni-guilty-murder-cash-app-ceo-bob-lee.html
Khazar Momeni showed up to court wearing a pastel blue silk Valentino dress with a pussy bow neckline, which retails for $5,500
Khazar placing her belongings in the security bin
Khazar with her husband, a prominent and rich plastic surgeon
Khazar Elyassnia (right), 37, who was with Lee the day he died, refused to be interviewed by police investigators. She was said to be having a sexual relationship with Lee even though she is married to plastic surgeon Dr Dino Elyassnia (pictured together left)
Khazar being arrested on DUI and hit-and-run charges, among others, after crashing her car in San Francisco on November 27, 2023
Khazar was accused of abusing fentanyl, cocaine, and nitrous oxide.
The blonde bombshell accessorized her look with large, white-framed glasses, a small white clutch, and beige heels
Khazar Momeni, 38, (left) is the sister of Nima Momeni (right) who is charged with fatally stabbing Cash App founder Bob Lee
A shaken Khazar Momeni pleads with police officers during her DUI arrest in San Francisco
Momeni was taken into custody after she was seen slamming into multiple parked cars in the Tenderloin district while under the influence of nitrous oxide
'Don't take her pretty a** to jail,' one woman at the scene was heard telling the cops.
Bystander video showed a canister of 'whippets' – a popular party inhalant drug found in the front seat alongside her designer handbag during her arrest
A damaged car she crashed into parked on Larkin Street
Khazar, who is the sister of the man who killed tech entrepreneur Bob Lee, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and a hit-and-run
Momeni's legs shaking as she faces questioning
'I did not know he's a drug dealer, as we don't get close to our drug dealers or invite them upstairs even. He was introduced to me as a friend,' Khazar told the court
In lengthy testimony, she accused the alleged drug dealer, Jeremy Boivin, of giving her the 'date rape' drug GHB, pulling her pants down and sexually assaulting her while she remained unconscious, Mission Local reported.
Khazar stated that Lee brought Boivin to her home on the morning of April 3, 2023, the day before the fatal stabbing.
'I did not know he's a drug dealer, as we don't get close to our drug dealers or invite them upstairs even. He was introduced to me as a friend,' she said. '[H]e brought me a big tank of nitrous and he had a big bottle of a liter of GHB.'
Khazar later went to Boivin's home, where Lee and another friend also stopped by. After Lee and is friend left, she claimed she passed out after consuming drugs.
She told the court that she had consumed three shots of a drink mixed with GHB before 'passing out.'
'He asked me about GHB and gave me, like, this sweet little drink, a little shot. And I drank it. I thought I could trust him,' Khazar said.
'I remember waking up twice: One time he (Boivin) pulled down my pants and slapped my ass. And another time he grabbed my a**, but I couldn't move or do anything.'
She and a young male passenger had pulled up to Alma's Smoke Shop at the corner of Larkin and O'Farrell to pick up a canister of nitrous oxide
She bought two canisters of N20, popular party inhalants known as 'whippets,' which are priced between $40 and $60 at the store
She was booked into San Francisco County Jail and charged with driving under the influence, two counts of a hit-and-run, failure to drive within the lane and failure to provide insurance at the scene of an accident
Friends say Cash App founder Bob Lee was a regular at underground sex and drug parties with other San Francisco elites — including the sister of the man accused of killing him. 'He was also hanging out with people who weren't great people, and that was part of what happened in the end. 'There are a lot of swingers, cheaters and liars in that crowd'
Nima Momeni, the killer, was dealing with drug addiction 'that made him unable to reason and speak' and was abusive to his girlfriends
Bob Lee's agonizing final moments after he was stabbed in the heart
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