Technology consultant Nima Momeni on Thursday pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder charge in the stabbing death of Cash app founder Bob Lee on the streets of San Francisco.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Victor Hwang ordered that Momeni, 38, be kept in jail without bail, saying his release posed a risk to public safety. Momeni, who appeared in an orange T-shirt and shorts, did not speak, and his lawyer, Paula Kanye, entered the petition on his behalf.
The case has attracted national attention, in part My place in the world of technology. Lee was found with three stab wounds, including one to the heart, shortly after 2:30 am on April 4 and was taken to hospital, where he later died. It is found in the Rincon Hill neighborhood of downtown San Francisco, which contains tech offices and apartment units but little activity in the early morning hours.
The 43-year-old Lee created the Cash app, a mobile payment service, and was in charge of the MobileCoin cryptocurrency product. He was sad as a loving father of two who made friends wherever he went.
Prosecutors have not offered a motive, but say Momeni stabbed Lee after a dispute involving Momeni’s sister, Khazar Eliasinya. She appeared in court on Thursday alongside Moumini’s mother.
Assistant Public Prosecutor Omid Talai argued Thursday that Momeni was being held without bail, saying that The defendant led me to a secluded place and used the knife It was part of his sister’s unique kitchen collection. Police found a knife with a 4-inch blade at the scene.
Talay said the analysis showed Momni’s DNA on the knife handle and Lee’s DNA on the bloody blade and no evidence that Lee touched the handle, contradicting Kanye’s claim of self-defense for her client.
But Kani said Momeni did not lead Lee to a secluded place with the intention of killing him. Instead, she tells me, he told him to stop after calling an Uber because the two had argued. Kanye said the last time he saw Lee’s believers, Lee was standing up straight and walking away.
“People can get into a fight and not know someone was fatally wounded,” she said in court, adding later: “Every one of us, including my client, is sad that Bob Lee is dead.”
Kani said Momeni has strong ties to the community and needs to stay and fight charges or face deportation to Iran, which would separate him from the two people he loves most, his mother and sister. Momeni is not a US citizen.
Outside the courtroom, she described the encounter as “a cross between self-defense and an accident. There was no premeditated deliberation.”
Speaking to reporters after the indictment, San Francisco District Attorney Brock Jenkins rejected that notion. “We believe we have Mr. Lee’s killer, and this is Mr. Momeni,” she said.
Momeni was arrested last month at his home in Emeryville, just across the bay from San Francisco.
Prosecutors, in Moumni’s unnamed suggestion to homicide investigators, said they had been hanging out and drinking with Moumni’s sister the day before the stabbing.
Momeni later asked Lee if his sister used drugs or engaged in inappropriate behavior, the friend said, and Lee said she had not.
The friend and me later separated, and surveillance video showed Lee entering the luxurious Millennium Tower in the city center, where Eliasnia lives with her husband, a prominent plastic surgeon. Video footage then showed Lee and Momene leaving the building together shortly after 2 am and driving off Momene’s car.
Momeni faces 26 years to life if convicted.