Jury deliberating in Nima Momeni murder trial
San Francisco - A San Francisco jury began deliberations Wednesday after hearing six weeks of evidence in the Nima Momeni murder trial.
The panel of six women and six men were led out of the courtroom by a sheriff's deputy shortly after 10 a.m. They left without rendering a verdict at about 4:15 p.m.
"We will all be very tense for the next week or two or however long it takes," said Lee's ex-wife Krista Lee. "Once again, fingers crossed. I want them to take their time, the evidence is there, we’ve only seen a fraction of what they’re getting in the deliberation room."
Saam Zangeneh, one of Momeni's five defense attorneys said outside court, "You do what you can, on both sides, the prosecution and the defense. We put on our case. They put on their case. Now we wait. That's all you can do. How do we feel? It doesn't matter how we feel. It's what the jury feels."
And jurors are now feeling their way through a lot of evidence.
Prosecutors say Momeni stabbed Lee, believing that Lee's dealer had drugged Momeni's sister Khazar and groped her.
But Momeni testified during the trial, saying it was Lee, during a drug-fueled bender, who came at him with a knife and that Momeni reacted in self-defense.
Prosecutors said Momeni never called 911 and that his explanation of what happened didn't make sense. They told the jury his combativeness on the stand were signs he could be far more hostile on the street.
But then there was a bombshell by the defense on Tuesday. During closing arguments, Zangeneh played for the jury surveillance video he said showed Lee using a knife to snort cocaine with a friend, the same knife the defense says Lee used to attack Momeni.
KTVU legal analyst Michael Cardoza says the prosecution failed to properly respond to this video.
"Now some juror may latch onto that, and that may be a reasonable doubt," Cardoza said. "I’m truly shocked the government didn’t address this in their case-in-chief or in their rebuttal case or in argument before the defense brought it up. Why did you let the defense bring something so shocking up?"
Krista Lee said it wasn't a knife, but instead a metal collar stay that her ex-husband used. She says the defense is trying to trash his legacy.
"This is our second Christmas without Bob," she said. "It is not easy. There will always be a vacant spot at our dinner table on those kinds of holidays."
Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan
