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Nima Momeni defense plays video it says shows Bob Lee using knife to snort cocaine
In its closing remarks, the defense in the Nima Momeni trial played for the jury surveillance video it says shows Cash App founder Bob Lee using a knife to snort cocaine. The defense says Lee lunged at Momeni with the same knife hours later and that Momeni reacted in self-defense.
San Francisco - In a surprise reveal Tuesday during its closing remarks to the jury, defense attorneys for accused killer Nima Momeni played surveillance video they say shows Cash App founder Bob Lee using a knife to snort cocaine hours before he was killed.
The defense says it's the same knife Lee used to confront Momeni over a bad joke in April 2023 and that Momeni fended off the attack in self-defense.
Defense attorney Saam Zangeneh, in his closing argument, said Lee had used the knife to "scoop and sniff" cocaine during a drug-fueled bender that ended with a confrontation with Momeni under the Bay Bridge near a Caltrans lot.
Outside court, Zangeneh said, "’I'm telling you that, we’ve done the dimensions, we’ve broken it down, he’s holding the same exact shape, size of the knife that was found outside of the Caltrans parking lot. That’s the knife!"
But authorities say the knife in question was a Joseph Joseph-brand knife, the same brand found in Momeni's sister's apartment in the Millennium Tower and that Lee would have no reason to carry a knife.
Zangeneh, though, said that brand of knife is sold everywhere" and questioned why anyone would want to use what he called a "beat up, most nastiest" paring knife as a murder weapon.
Prosecutors have said Momeni was the aggressor and was upset because he believed his sister Khazar had been drugged and groped by Lee's dealer.
But Zangeneh said, "Imagine how crazy it sounds. Kill the friend of someone that touched his sister's butt and gave her a drug. Does that sound crazy? Because that's what they're saying."
The defense attorney said the DA's motive is flimsy and that without a motive, the prosecution's case "doesn't make any sense."
"The defense gets one closing argument and what they’re doing in this closing argument is pointing out to the jury that there are alternate interpretations to each of the pieces of evidence that the government put into the trial, "said KTVU legal analyst Michael Cardoza, a former prosecutor who now works as a defense attorney
Lee's brother Tim Oliver Lee said of Zangeneh's remarks, "Bob was a great man. For this person to try and traumatize us again and again, is just horrible, right? It was a terrible experience."
Assistant District Attorney Omid Talai, in his rebuttal argument to the jury Tuesday, accused the defense of misleading and distracting them.
Referring to Momeni's various explanations while on the stand, Talai said either the defendant murdered Lee or "This is the biggest damn coincidence in the history of all coincidences." He urged the jury to bring justice to Lee and now allow Momeni to also kill Lee's legacy.
Also on Tuesday, a juror left the panel because of illness. She was replaced by an alternate juror. The composition has not changed. It's still a jury of six men and six women that will begin deliberating Judge Alexandra Robert Gordon of San Francisco Superior Court gives the final instructions on Wednesday.
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
Live updates: Closing arguments conclude in Nima Momeni trial
Prosecutor Dane Reinstedt began his closing argument to the jury on Monday by playing the 911 call Bob Lee made in which he repeatedly pleaded for help.