A San Francisco jury on Tuesday convicted IT consultant Nima Momeni in the 2023 fatal stabbing of tech executive Bob Lee, a killing that led to concern about street crime in the city — but which actually occurred after a personal dispute.
The jury acquitted Momeni of first-degree murder, but found him guilty of second-degree murder.
A verdict was reached on Monday, but read out Tuesday after deliberations started Dec. 4. The jury had been asked to consider first-degree murder with an enhancement of using a deadly weapon, NBC Bay Area reported.
Momeni appeared unemotional as the verdict was read, as was his lead attorney who joined the hearing via Zoom, the station reported.
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He faces 16 years to life in prison, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said.
Lee, the 43-year-old founder of the popular money transfer service Cash App, was found stabbed early the morning of April 4, 2023, near San Francisco’s downtown. He was rushed to a hospital but died of his injuries.
Prosecutors argued that Momeni intended to fatally stab Lee over an argument about his sister, who Lee knew, and her drug use. Momeni said Lee attacked him with a knife, and that he defended himself and Lee was stabbed.
Lee's brother, Tim Oliver Lee, told reporters that the family is grateful for the guilty verdict, even though it was a lesser charge of second-degree murder.
"We know what happened here. We think he had the intent to murder, the jury felt like he did not have the intent coming into that situation," Tim Oliver Lee said. "But what matters today is that we had a guilty verdict, and that Nima Momeni is going away for a very long time."
On the morning of the killing police were told by a dispatcher there was a man “screaming, ‘help,’ saying ‘someone stabbed me,’” recordings showed.
The case immediately generated controversy when SpaceX's Elon Musk posted on social media after Lee’s death about crime in San Francisco, and questioned the district attorney about “repeat violent offenders.”
Instead, a week later San Francisco police announced the arrest of Momeni, 40, who is not a repeat offender and whose sister was friends with Lee.
Momeni was accused of driving Lee to a secluded area and then stabbing him three times with a 4-inch kitchen knife. Lee was stabbed in the heart.
Prosecutors said that Momeni planned to kill Lee, and that he had an argument with Lee over his sister.
Momeni testified that on April 3, his sister called and asked him to pick her up from the apartment of a friend of Lee's who the sister described as her drug dealer. The sister testified that she told her brother she may have been sexually assaulted after taking the drug GHB.
Prosecutors alleged in court documents that on the night of the killing, a witness saw Momeni questioning Lee "regarding whether his sister was doing drugs or anything inappropriate," and Lee had to reassure him that nothing had happened.
Momeni claimed he acted in self-defense after Lee pulled a knife on him.
Momeni told jurors that on the night of the stabbing Lee had been doing drugs. They were in a car together but pulled over because Momeni thought Lee was going to vomit, and Momeni said Lee attacked him after Momeni made a joke that he'd rather spend his last night in San Francisco with family than at strip clubs.
Momeni claimed that when Lee pulled out the knife he had to defend himself. Momeni said there was a struggle over the weapon, and eventually Lee walked away down the street but that Momeni did not know Lee had been stabbed.
The trial began on Oct. 14. Assistant District Attorney Omid Talai said in opening statements that Lee, who was then the chief product officer of the cryptocurrency company MobileCoin, was "stabbed through his heart and left to die."
When asked why the jury went for second-degree murder instead of first-degree, Jenkins, the DA, said: “Of course, we presented evidence that we thought substantiated a first-degree murder conviction, but at the end of the day, the jury has weighed in with their verdict, and we respect what that is, and we do understand, based on the facts, how they might get there.”
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