A tech executive was found guilty in a San Francisco court on Tuesday of the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee.
Prosecutors said Nima Momeni stabbed Lee three times with a kitchen knife after taking him to a secluded area in April 2023.
Momeni’s defense attorneys previously said he acted in self-defense in response to an attempted attack by a drunken Lee. Momeni pleaded not guilty.
Lee, a former executive at cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin, was killed in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023, in the San Francisco neighborhood of Rincon Hill, according to police.
Around 2 a.m., camera footage shows Lee and Momeni leaving Lee’s hotel and getting into Momeni’s car, a BMW Z4, prosecutors said in a court filing.
The video shows the BMW driving to a secluded, dark area where the two men got out of the car. Momeni approached Lee and the BMW sped away from the scene, according to court documents.
Prosecutors allege that Momeni killed Lee because an acquaintance of Lee’s allegedly sexually assaulted Momeni’s sister.
Paula Canny, Momeni’s defense attorney, said at a hearing in May that Lee’s death resulted from a mix of self-defense and accidental injury.
“There was no premeditation,” Canny said.
Nima Momeni arrives in court at the San Francisco, California Hall of Justice on May 18, 2023.
Paul Kuroda-Pool/Getty Images
On the witness stand last month, Momeni said Lee attacked her in a fit of rage sparked by a joke. Momeni teased Lee, saying she’d rather spend her last night on the town with her family than go to a strip club, where the two were likely going, Momeni said.
In the ensuing scuffle, Momeni didn’t realize Lee was seriously injured, said Momeni, who owns an Emeryville, Calif., company called Expand IT.
