A tech guide charged with homicide in Money App founder Bob Lee’s stabbing demise sparred with the lead prosecutor at trial Thursday, interrupting questions requested of him along with his personal questions as he was grilled on his testimony.
Nima Momeni, 40, needed to be instructed a number of instances by the choose to supply responsive solutions.
He broke his public silence after 18 months when he took the witness stand Wednesday to clarify how Lee was discovered staggering on a abandoned downtown San Francisco avenue at 2:30 a.m. on April 4, 2023, dripping a path of blood and calling for assist. He later died at a hospital.
Momeni testified Lee, 43, abruptly pulled a knife on him after he cracked a “dangerous joke” suggesting Lee ought to spend his final night time within the metropolis with household as an alternative of attempting to go to a strip membership. He mentioned Lee later walked away, displaying no indicators he was injured.
His testimony surprised Lee’s father, brother and ex-wife, who’ve been a steadfast presence within the prison trial. They are saying Lee was big-hearted and delicate, and near his two youngsters and ex-wife.
“What you might have seen is Nima be aggressive on the stand, you’ve seen him simply attempting to take management of this room, his conceitedness and his entitlement are on full show right here,” mentioned the sufferer’s brother, Timothy Oliver Lee, talking with reporters exterior the courtroom room Thursday.
“That is insane,” he mentioned. “All of that is ridiculous.”
The trial is in its fifth week. Momeni faces 26 years to life if convicted.
Lee’s demise surprised the tech group 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 say Momeni deliberate the April 4 assault after a dispute over his youthful sister, Khazar Momeni, with whom Lee was pals. Momeni had picked up his sister from the house of a drug seller launched to her by Lee, and she or he mentioned she could have been sexually assaulted after ingesting a date-rape drug referred to as GHB.
They are saying Momeni was indignant with Lee so he took a knife from his sister’s apartment, and after the pair was kicked out of her place at 2 a.m., he drove Lee to a secluded space and stabbed him thrice after which fled.
Omid Talai, the assistant district legal professional, grilled Momeni on Thursday on particulars of precisely how the assault unfolded. He requested Momeni why he didn’t name police after the assault and studying Lee had died, and why he didn’t reply to his sister’s textual content asking the place he had dropped off Lee.
Momeni mentioned he didn’t be taught of Lee’s demise till the next day and was puzzled by his sister’s question. He mentioned he thought Lee might have been stabbed by another person shortly after he noticed him stroll off, unhurt.
In response to questions, Momeni mentioned he didn’t know what the prosecutor was getting at, accused him of misrepresenting his statements and mentioned he had already answered.
At one level, San Francisco Superior Court docket Choose Alexandra Gordon mentioned that the prosecutor had no obligation to supply him with a printout of the texts he was questioning him about or to place them on the multimedia display screen.
“Gotcha,” mentioned Momeni, wearing a blue swimsuit and tie. “Thanks for clarifying.”
Prosecutors have video displaying Lee and Momeni leaving Khazar Momeni’s apartment after 2 a.m. and driving off collectively in Momeni’s BMW. Video additionally exhibits the 2 males getting out of the automotive in an remoted spot by the Bay Bridge.
Prosecutors say that’s the place Momeni stabbed Lee, whereas the protection says that’s the place Lee attacked Momeni, erratic and aggressive from a multi-day bender of cocaine, ketamine and consuming.
A knife recovered from the realm the place Lee was stabbed confirmed Momeni’s DNA on the deal with, however the protection mentioned the deal with ought to have been examined for fingerprints, specifically Lee’s.
Momeni mentioned he and Lee have been on pleasant phrases once they left his sister’s apartment, however prosecutors say the defendant grilled the entrepreneur earlier within the night about what may need occurred to his sister on the drug seller’s house.
The prosecutor identified a number of instances Thursday that Momeni was questioning him the way in which he grilled Lee.
Nima Momeni was 14 when his mom, Mahnaz Tayarani, took him and Khazar to the U.S., fleeing Iran and a husband who had inflicted years of abuse and violence on the household, she wrote in a letter submitted to the courtroom in assist of her son’s pre-trial launch.
She has sat on one aspect of the courtroom whereas Lee’s relations sit on the opposite.
