Nima Momeni had clear motive - and brought knife - to kill Bob Lee, DA tells jury
SAN FRANCISCO - A San Francisco prosecutor urged the jury Monday to find Nima Momeni guilty of murdering Cash App founder Bob Lee, calling Momeni's self-defense claim a "carefully crafted story" that was "workshopped" by "so-called experts" who were paid for their testimony.
In his closing argument to the jury, prosecutor Dane Reinstedt said Momeni had a clear motive and brought a knife to a secluded area under the Bay Bridge to kill Lee in April 2023.
Lee's daughter abruptly left the courtroom with her mother and uncle as Reinstedt showed surveillance video of Lee collapsing and later dying after he was stabbed.
The prosecutor also played Lee’s 911 call in which he repeatedly asked for help.
Reinstedt said Momeni was upset at Lee, believing that Momeni's sister Khazar had been given date-rape drugs and was sexually abused by Lee’s alleged dealer at a party hours earlier.
"If that’s not a basis or motive to want to kill someone, I don’t know what is," Reinstedt said.
The prosecutor said Lee was stabbed three times - including in the heart - while Momeni suffered not a single injury. The knife used was the same brand as the knives Momeni’s sister kept in her apartment in the Millenium Tower, Reinstedt said.
The prosecutor said Lee no reason to be carrying a knife and derided Momeni's often combative testimony and self-defense claim, saying he made up the story that Lee had come at him with a knife over a bad joke.
Reinstedt said Khazar Momeni had texted Lee, thanking him for being classy when her brother had come down hard on him. In contrast, the prosecutor said Momeni got texts calling him "f- psychotic, a lunatic, an animal 24-7, with his own sister telling him, ‘You scare me.’ "
"Closing argument is the place where the attorneys’ skills really are on display," said KTVU legal analyst Michael Cardoza. "All attorneys, trial attorneys love closing argument because here’s where they bring the case together."
Outside court, Lee's brother Tim Oliver Lee said of the prosecutor, "I think Dane did a great job of summing up this case and really putting it in perspective and really drawing in what the facts are."
In the afternoon, San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins came to watch the proceedings in this high-profile case.
The defense will give its final pitch to the jury on Tuesday, after which the prosecution will be able to address the jury for a second time in a rebuttal argument. From there, Momeni's fate will be in the hands of a jury of six men and six women.
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