Bob Lee killing: Lawyers question evidence, motive
Defense attorneys for Nima Momeni, the man accused of murder in the case case of Cash App founder Bob Lee, on Monday morning attempted to cast doubts on the motive for the murder and the crime scene evidence in the case — apparently working to convince the sitting judge not to move forward with a jury trial.
Momeni’s attorneys questioned police and investigators who were on the scene of or investigated the April stabbing, raising concerns that the alleged murder weapon was improperly handled and that a homeless man was also at the scene.
They also revealed that Momeni’s concern for his sister’s wellbeing the day of Lee’s killing was actually over Jeremy Boivin, a drug dealer who both Lee and Momeni’s had spent time with earlier that day — and is believed by investigators to have a romantic relationship with Momeni’s younger sister, Khazar Momeni.
Prosecutors previously suggested that Momeni killed Lee in a premeditated attack, after demanding to know if anything “inappropriate” had happened while Lee was spending time with Momeni’s sister. This narrative that Lee may have had a relationship with Khazar Momeni was disputed by defense attorneys on Monday afternoon.
Lee, 43, was stabbed to death in the early morning hours of April 4. He was found bleeding out on Main Street near Harrison Street, in Rincon Hill. Momeni, 38, an IT consultant and acquaintance who had left a party with Lee earlier that evening, has been charged with murder for the killing.
Prosecutors showed surveillance footage this afternoon of Lee and Momeni leaving a building together, getting into a white BMW, and driving shortly before Lee was stabbed. Momeni is the owner of a white BMW Z4.
Later, blurry video shows a two figures standing outside of the white BMV near the scene of Lee’s killing. According to prosecutors, these two figures were Momeni and Lee. Prosecutors allege Momeni could be seen making a lunging motion towards Lee, and then Lee could be seen collapsing after walking away from Momeni.
Along with his four attorneys, Momeni appeared in court in his typical orange jumpsuit on Monday for the first day of his preliminary hearing, a mini-trial in which both sides will present evidence regarding the high-profile murder case, and the judge will determine whether the case has enough evidence to go to a jury trial.
Momeni’s attorneys used much of their time on Monday picking apart testimony from prosecutors’ first four witnesses, in an apparent effort to cast doubt on the handling of the crime scene. Defense attorneys’ questioning revealed that another person had been near the scene of the stabbing, and that the knife allegedly used in the stabbing was never fingerprinted by police.
Officer Rosalyn Check, a crime scene investigator who processed the murder scene and testified in today’s preliminary hearing, said she did not check the knife found on the scene for fingerprints because its rubber handle made fingerprinting nearly impossible. Instead, she swabbed the handle for DNA.
Prosecutors have alleged that Momeni’s DNA was on the handle and Lee’s DNA, in the form of blood, was on the blade.
Prosecutors have laid out a timeline of the killing, saying Momeni planned Lee’s murder by grabbing a 3.5 inch kitchen knife from the home of his sister, driving Lee to a “dark and secluded” area of the Financial District, and stabbing him multiple times before fleeing the scene. The District attorney’s Office had suggested the killing may have been spurred by Lee’s romantic involvement with Momeni’s sister, whose home both men were visiting the night before Lee’s death.
Surveillance camera footage from Millenium Tower shows Bob Lee and Nima Momeni leaving together and entering Momeni’s white BMW, shortly before Lee was stabbed on April 4, 2023.
According to witness accounts and text messages from that night, Lee and Khazar Momeni had been taking drugs and spending time together that day, along with Jeremy Boivin. Momeni, according to the accounts, at some point questioned Lee about whether anything inappropriate had happened with his sister, who is married.
A text Khazar Momeni allegedly sent Lee the day he was killed read: “Just wanted to make sure your doing ok Cause I know nima came wayyyyyy down hard on you And thank you for being such a classy man handling it with class Love you Selfish pricks.”
But testimony today from SFPD Sgt. Brent Dittmer, suggested that Momeni was actually asking questions about what had happened between Boivin and Khazar Momeni. Dittmer said he interviewed witnesses who had been partying with the pair on April 3, who said Lee had left Boivin’s house in the afternoon before any issues arose.
A female witness told investigators that she passed out during the afternoon, and woke up to Khazar Momeni crying, at which point the two women called for Nima Momeni and Khazar’s husband to come get them. Boivin, she said, was “fawning over” Khazar.
In his cross-examination of Dittmer, lead defense attorney Saam Zangeneh tried to delve into Boivin’s criminal history of drug arrests and sodomy charges, but prosecutors argued it was irrelevant. Judge Harry Dorfman agreed.
Momeni, according to friends and acquaintances, himself had a serious drug addiction, owned several “ghost guns” and knives, and had abused several women. Others described him as a kind and loving family man, and a successful entrepreneur.
Zangeneh said later that he was trying to prove that Momeni had no premeditation or motive to kill Lee, and that the prevalent “honor killing” narrative was inaccurate.
“If you can’t prove those, then guess what — you don’t have a murder,” Zangeneh said Monday afternoon of the first-degree murder charge Momeni faces. His team said they expect the preliminary hearing to conclude on Tuesday.
Zangeneh, a celebrity attorney from Florida who took over Momeni’s case from his first attorney, said he also had “concerns” about the way SFPD handled the evidence at the crime scene.
“Usually when you want to see if someone’s touching something, you want fingerprint evidence,” Zangeneh said in the hallway after the morning’s court testimony. He did not answer the allegation of his client’s DNA being found on the knife.
The knife was allegedly the British brand Joseph Joseph, the same as those in the kitchen of Momeni’s sister, who lives in Millenium Tower. Prosecutors allege that Momeni and Lee left the home of Momeni’s sister together and that Momeni stabbed Lee on the street nearby.
Check also said that she found blood droplets on the sidewalk on the west side of Main Street, which had trailed from the east side of the block. Blood had also been smeared in an arch on a wall as well as on the call box in front of the Portside apartments at 403 Main St.
Lee was seen on surveillance camera footage in front of the apartment complex, staggering and trying to call for help after his apparent stabbing.
“He was bleeding uncontrollably from the chest and the hip,” said Hood, who arrived on the scene the night of Lee’s stabbing. Hood testified first in court on Monday and explained that the alleged murder weapon, the Joseph Joseph knife, was found at the scene behind a locked gate of a Caltrans parking lot.
Alongside the DNA evidence, Momeni’s attorneys attempted to cast doubt on the prosecution’s story by pointing to a homeless man who had been laying on the ground just 40 feet away, on the same block of Main Street where Lee was found bleeding to death.
“He didn’t give a clear, rational statement of why he was where he was,” said SFPD Officer Cedric Hood, another witness called to testify on Monday. Hood was one of the responding officers who arrived around 2:30 a.m. on April 4 to find Lee unresponsive and render aid.
Officer Check, the crime scene investigator, said other pieces of evidence, including a small bag used for drugs, were found in the street, among items that may have belonged to Lee. A pop socket for a phone was found with blood on it, she said, as was a vape, some chocolate, and two latex gloves that were not entered into evidence.
Defense attorneys also pointed to “suspect white powder” found in Lee’s hotel room at the nearby One Hotel, apparently suggesting the drug bag belonged to Lee. Meanwhile, prosecutor Omid Talai implied the drugs may not have been Lee’s as the neighborhood where the bag was found is one where drugs are commonplace.
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