SF Jury Convicts Nima Momeni of 2nd-Degree Murder in Killing of Tech Founder Bob Lee

Updated 11:08 a.m. Tuesday

A San Francisco jury on Tuesday found Nima Momeni guilty of second-degree murder for the killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee.

The fatal stabbing of Lee, 43, in downtown San Francisco last year attracted national media attention — first as the city’s critics held it up as an example of dangerous lawlessness on the streets, and then, as a sensational inside look at the lives of the Bay Area’s rich and techy as the murder trial unfolded.

Throughout the six-week trial, the defense and prosecution painted very different pictures of the early hours of April 4, 2023, when Lee was stabbed twice in the chest and once in the hip in the Rincon Hill neighborhood.

“We’re extremely thankful to the district attorney’s office, we’re extremely thankful to the jury, so we think justice was done today,” Lee’s brother, Timothy Oliver Lee, told reporters outside the courtroom on Tuesday. He said that while the family was hoping for a first-degree murder conviction, their ultimate hope was that “Bob’s kids do not have to see [Momeni] on the streets again.”

Momeni’s defense team had argued that it was Lee who pulled the paring knife out on a deserted, downtown street. They asserted that he was enraged after Momeni, a former Emeryville tech consultant, made an off-hand “joke” about his parenting, the San Francisco Chronicle has reported. On the stand, Momeni said he flipped the blade on Lee in self-defense.

According to his autopsy, Lee had cocaine, alcohol and ketamine in his system when he died. The defense argued that his cocaine use could have aided the angry outburst.

The prosecution disputed this story, instead positing that Momeni stabbed Lee three times in an angry rage. According to the Chronicle, the night before the altercation, they say Lee was with Momeni’s sister, Khazar Momeni, who was his friend and possibly a romantic interest.

According to prosecutors, Momeni’s sister called him in tears from the apartment of a convicted drug dealer Lee had taken her to. She testified that after Lee left the dealer’s apartment, she was given shots of GHB and abused while unconscious.

Assistant District Attorneys Dane Reinstedt and Omid Talai told the jury that hours after picking his sister up, Momeni and his sister were socializing with Lee. Momeni allegedly offered Lee a ride home from Millenium Tower, where Khazar and her husband live, and then stabbed him out of rage over the situation.

Genetic testing on the knife showed Lee’s DNA on the blade, while 99% of the DNA on the handle matched Momeni, the Chronicle reported.

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the trial and its outcome disproved the “doom loop” narrative of danger on the streets of San Francisco that some high-profile critics pushed in the days after Lee’s shocking death.

“Elon Musk took to Twitter to make it seem like there was lawlessness in San Francisco,” she said, adding that as her office dug into the case, they found that the situation was very different than first portrayed. “We are a city committed to accountability, we are a city committed to public safety.”

The six-man, six-woman jury deliberated over the case for seven days before reaching a verdict late Monday afternoon and returning to court for the announcement Tuesday morning. They unanimously decided Momeni was not guilty of first-degree murder, instead finding him guilty of second-degree murder with the use of a dangerous weapon. The verdict carries a prison sentence of 16 years to life.

Lee’s ex-wife, Krista Lee, and their two children were in the courtroom. She said after the verdict was read that Momeni’s family “has blood on their hands.”

Mahnaz Tayarani Babai, Momeni’s mother, did not answer many questions after the announcement, instead asking reporters: “If you were me, how would you [be] do[ing]?”

KQED’s Sara Hossaini contributed to this report.