CashApp founder Bob Lee's devastated daughter comforts mom as they attend closing arguments at dad's murder trial
Bob Lee's devastated daughter was comforted by her mother as they attended closing arguments in her father's murder trial after he was stabbed to death in San Francisco.
Scout Lee, 16, could be heard sobbing as harrowing video footage of her dying father was played to the jury on Monday.
Later she was seen clutching onto her mother for support while walking along a corridor outside the court with her uncle, Tim Oliver Lee.
Prosecutors say Nima Momeni took Lee's life on the 300 block of Main Street in the ritzy Rincon Hill neighborhood in April 2023.
It is alleged Momeni stabbed Lee three times after hearing that his drug dealing friend plied his younger sister, Khazar, with GHB and other drugs and sexually assaulted her.
'One person called 911 pleading for help, saying somebody stabbed me,' said Dane Reinstedt, assistant district attorney, adding that the other person never called police or told anyone what happened that night until the trial.
Defense attorneys say Lee, 43, was on a multi-day drug bender of cocaine and ketamine that made him agitated and violent, and that he attacked the defendant with a knife.
They said Momeni was forced to use his Krav Maga martial arts skills in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023, after 'making a 'bad joke' that upset Lee - and did not realize he had stabbed him.
Scout Lee, Bob Lee's daughter, seen with her arms wrapped around her mom Krista Lee, right, along with Tim Oliver Lee (Bob's brother) the Hall of Justice for the murder trial of Nima Momeni in San Francisco on Monday
The ex-wife of Cash App founder Bob Lee and one of his daughters, Scout, were seen at the trial
Bob Lee was later found fatally stabbed in downtown San Francisco on April 9 2023. He was later rushed to hospital where he died
Momeni faces 26 years to life if convicted of murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
The assistant district attorney mocked Momeni's defense as he walked jurors through evidence from the trial that began on October 14.
He said Momeni was furious with Lee for introducing Khazar, with whom he was friends, to a drug dealer who gave her GHB, known as a date-rape drug, hours before the stabbing.
They say Momeni grilled Lee earlier in the evening about what happened to his sister at the drug dealer's apartment, and sent text messages saying that the two men were creeps and sexual predators.
Momeni then met up with Lee at his sister's condo, took a paring knife from her kitchen set, drove Lee to a secluded area by the Bay Bridge and stabbed him three times, including a fatal blow through his heart, on a dimly lit street, Reinstedt said.
'That protectiveness of the defendant's little sister is what led to all of this,' he said.
Momeni had learned “his little sister, the person he’s closest to in the world, was given date rape drugs and sexually assaulted. If that’s not a basis to kill someone, I don’t know what is,' prosecutor Reinstedt said.
The puncture wounds were clean, clear and deep, and not the result of any kind of self-defense tussle, he said. 99% of the DNA on the handle of the knife belonged to Momeni, the prosecutor said.
The Lee family listened in tears as the courtroom heard Bob's 911 call asking for help
San Francisco prosecutors say Nima Momeni, pictured, stabbed Lee three times after hearing that Lee's drug dealer friend plied Momeni's younger sister with GHB and other drugs and sexually assaulted her
At a previous hearing, the suspect's mother formed a heart as he made his way through the courtroom
Tim Oliver Lee, left, the brother of Cash App founder Bob Lee, Krista Lee, right, Lee's ex-wife, and one of their teenage daughters, 16-year-old Scout, could be seen leaving the courtroom
Tim Oliver Lee, left, brother of Cash App founder Bob Lee, is seen heading into the courtroom
Reinstedt played Lee's 911 call from April 4, 2023, that recorded his final words.
Jurors could hear him begging an emergency dispatcher for help before he collapsed on Main Street in a pool of blood.
Lee’s ex-wife, his father, brother, and the couple's two children could be seen in the court room listening, reports KRON4.
Lee’s youngest teenage child started to sob after surveillance footage of her dying father was played in court as he collapsed in a pool of his own blood.
'On April 4, 2023, one person called 911 pleading for help, saying, 'somebody stabbed me.' Telling us with his last words what happened that night. He begged for help, over and over and over. (Momeni) never called police.
'He never told anyone about what happened under the Bay Bridge that night until a year and a half later, after he had an opportunity to review all the evidence, to tell you a carefully crafted story.'
'One person is dead. The other person sits in this courtroom. The evidence now proves he's a murderer,' Reinstedt told jurors.
'One person was stabbed. The other person suffered not one single injury,' the prosecutor added.
'One person was the passenger in the white BMW that drove to that quiet dark area with no witnesses.
'He didn't choose the location they went to. (Momeni) was the driver. It was an area (under the bridge) he was familiar with, knowing it was as isolated as you could get in a city like San Francisco, knowing he had easy access to flee onto the freeway.
Mahnaz Tayarani, mother of Nima Momeni - who is charged with murder in Cash App founder Bob Lee's stabbing death - walks out of the San Francisco courtroom
Prosecutors say Nima Momeni stabbed Lee three times after hearing that Lee's drug dealer friend plied Momeni's younger sister, Khazar, pictured, with GHB and sexually assaulted her
Prosecutor, Dane Reinstedt, the assistant district attorney can be seen in this courtroom sketch showing harrowing video of Bob Lee's final moments as he lay dying outside an apartment building
'The defendant’s claim is he acted in self-defense. Your job is to determine the facts,' Reinstedt told the jury.
The trial has been emotionally taxing for family members of both men.
Mahnaz Tayarani, mother of the defendant, has sat on one side of the court room while Lee's father, brother and ex-wife sat on the other.
The prosecution started its closing argument with a 911 call in which Lee could be heard asking repeatedly for help.
Surveillance video of Bob goofing around on his final night and autopsy photos of his wounds have been difficult to view, said Lee's brother, Timothy Oliver Lee. He dismissed Momeni's explanation of events as a fabrication.
'Even if he was under the influence, he was still Bob. He was never aggressive. He was always a teddy bear and always a great guy,' he said.
Surveillance video shows the two men leaving the posh condo of Khazar Momeni around 2am and getting into Momeni's BMW.
Bob Lee, the CashApp creator was a father to two girls. Both are now teenagers with Scout, 16, seen right, attending court in San Francisco on Monday
Other surveillance then shows them getting out of the car in an isolated section of the city by the Bay Bridge.
Momeni testified he stopped his car after going over a pothole that caused Lee to spill the beer he was holding.
Momeni said he then cracked a joke suggesting Lee should spend his last night visiting the city with family instead of trying to find a strip club to keep the party going.
That's when Lee suddenly pulled a knife, Momeni said. He said Lee later walked away, showing no signs he was injured.
'I was scared for my life,' Momeni said in earlier testimony that was at times rambling and contentious. 'I had to defend myself.'
Lee was found staggering on a deserted downtown San Francisco street at 2:30am, dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. He later died at a hospital.
Jurors were allowed to ask questions and, through San Francisco Superior Court Judge Alexandra Gordon, asked why Momeni did not call police, either after Lee's knife attack or after Momeni realized Lee had been stabbed to death.
A knife recovered from the area where Lee was stabbed showed Momeni´s DNA on the handle, but the defense said the handle should have been tested for Lee's fingerprints.
The Rincon Hill neighborhood along Main Street near where Lee was fatally stabbed in San Francisco
Floral tributes left close to where Lee was fatally stabbed. Lee's death stunned the tech community as fellow executives and engineers penned tributes to the charismatic entrepreneur's generosity and brilliance
Lee's death stunned the tech community as fellow executives and engineers penned tributes to his generosity and brilliance.
He was chief product officer of cryptocurrency platform MobileCoin when he died.
Momeni, who lives in nearby Emeryville, California, has been in custody since his arrest days after Lee died at a San Francisco hospital.
