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A 40-year-old technology consultant has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee in San Francisco last year.
The verdict read Tuesday comes more than a year after Lee was found bleeding to death on a street in downtown San Francisco.
The jury heard more than six weeks of testimony about a drug vendor, sexual assault and ultimately early morning stabbing in San Francisco in April 2023.
During closing arguments, prosecutors played the 911 call Lee made after Nima Momeni stabbed him, leaving him dead in the street, according to the Associated Press.
The jury heard Ms Lee repeatedly ask for help on the phone.
Lee, 43, was found bleeding downtown around 2:30 a.m. on April 4, 2023, and later succumbed to his injuries.
Momeni, angry that Lee had introduced her sister, Hazar Momeni, to the man who allegedly gave her GHB, known as the date rape drug, accused Lee of killing her three times near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Stung. Hazar Momeni testified that Lee’s friend Jeremy Boivin, who prosecutors say is a drug dealer, drugged and sexually assaulted her, ABC7 news station reported. Boivin has not been charged in connection with the incident, authorities said.
The criminal trial, which began on October 14, marks the end of a chapter in a murder case that shocked the Bay Area. The jury reached its verdict after seven days of deliberations.
Initial reports about Lee’s death sparked fear and criticism in San Francisco of rampant crime, but the story surrounding the incident began to change after police announced Momeni’s arrest and revealed details about a possible motive. changed quickly.
Assistant District Atty. Dane Reinstedt summed up the circumstances that led to the stabbing in closing arguments Monday.
Hours before the stabbing, Lee met Nima Momeni at Momeni’s sister’s Mission Street apartment, where Momeni asked Lee about what had happened to her. Nima Momeni grabbed a paring knife from the kitchen and walked out the front door with Lee.
Video from the elevator shows the men leaving the building around 2 a.m. and driving away in Momeni’s BMW.
According to the Associated Press, Momeni testified on stage during the trial that Lee attacked him after telling him a “bad joke” while they were in the car.
“My life was in danger,” Momeni told the jury.
Momeni testified that he drove his car over a pothole and Lee spilled the beer he was carrying, so he pulled over in a quiet area of the Bay Bridge. According to his testimony, Momeni then joked to Lee that instead of finding a strip club, he should spend his last night in town with his family.
Momeni’s lawyer argued that Lee became upset and attacked Momeni, forcing his client to use his Krav Maga martial arts skills to defend himself, according to the Associated Press. Momeni did not realize Lee had been stabbed, his lawyer told the jury during closing arguments.
But prosecutors said the stab wounds were precise and clean and not caused by someone in self-defense.
Reinstedt said Momeni called the police even though Lee had attacked her with a knife and that Lee was reportedly found with stab wounds on the street and later died. He says he didn’t.
An autopsy report said alcohol, ketamine and cocaine were found in Lee’s system.
Defense lawyers argued that Mr Lee had been in bed for several days on drugs, which would explain why he had become agitated and violent on the night of his death.
In his closing argument, defense attorney Sahm Zangeneh played surveillance video showing Lee and a friend outside the Battery, a private social club in San Francisco. In the video, Lee is seen inhaling drugs from an object that Zangeneh claims is the knife used to kill him, ABC7 reported.
Assistant distribution accordingly. Atty. Mr Omid Tarai asked the jury to consider why Mr Lee’s DNA was not found on the object if it was the knife used in the killing. Prosecutors said only Momeni’s DNA was found on the knife.
Prosecutors showed a video of Mr. Lee before he was stabbed. At one point, the jacket was open and Reinstedt said he could not see the knife. Another, albeit grainy, video showed men on the bridge, showing Momeni as the aggressor, the Associated Press reported.
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