SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A tech consultant charged with murder in Cash App founder Bob Lee’s stabbing death sparred with the lead prosecutor at trial, 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.
He broke his public silence after 18 months when he took the witness stand to explain how Lee was found staggering on a deserted downtown San Francisco street at 2.30am 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 club. He said Lee later walked away, showing no signs he was injured. “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.
“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 said 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 assaulted after ingesting a 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 2am, he drove Lee to a secluded area and stabbed him three times and then fled.
