Bob Lee murder trial: Prosecutors deliver closing arguments

Nima Momeni is a liar who concocted an incredible self-defense fantasy to explain how he stabbed tech mogul Bob Lee to death last year, prosecutors argued Monday in their closing arguments at Momeni’s six-week trial on murder charges.

“On April 4, 2023, an individual called 911 saying, ‘Someone stabbed me,’ and kept begging for help,” Assistant District Attorney Dane Reinstedt told the San Francisco Superior Court jury. “The other person did not call 911 that night. He never did either.

“It’s a pretty simple sequence of events, despite the complications that the defense has tried to create,” he said. “The defendant stabbed Bob Lee three times. We will ask you to find Mr. Momeni guilty of murder.”

Momeni’s defense team is scheduled to make its closing argument Tuesday, and then the 12-member jury will begin deliberations to decide whether Momeni, 39, is guilty of first-degree murder, a lesser charge or innocent. If convicted, you could face a life sentence of 25 years or as little as two years.

For nearly two hours Monday, Reinstedt presented his team, point by point, with a summary of what happened in the hours before the 2:30 a.m. stabbing. The gist, he told the jury, is that Lee and Momeni’s sister, Khazar Momeni, had been partying at the home of a convicted drug dealer. The sister told Momeni that the dealer had knocked her out and sexually assaulted her, and that Momeni later stabbed Lee in anger over the incident.

Reinstedt began his argument by playing the tape of Lee calling 911 after an attack and repeatedly pleading “help, help” until he found himself on a sidewalk under the Bay Bridge, about a block away from the scene. where he had been stabbed, fell unconscious. He also showed video of police arriving to find Lee collapsed – a graphic video that left Lee’s ex-wife and two children, who were sitting in the gallery, in tears and leaving the courtroom.

Both sides agree that the fateful confrontation occurred after Momeni, a technology consultant, gave Lee, the 43-year-old founder of CashApp, a ride in his BMW after discussing the incident with the drug dealer. But Momeni’s lawyers have argued that Lee was the one who pulled a 7-inch paring knife from his pocket and tried to stab Momeni, who then pointed the knife – still in Lee’s hand – at the victim.

Reinstedt on Monday called that theory absurd, saying Momeni and his lawyers invented it after reviewing all the evidence, identifying what they thought might be plausible and using “so-called experts” to support it. One of the most telling facts, he said, was that only Momeni’s DNA was on the knife handle.

“They were working on ideas to find something that might fit the wounds,” he said. “The defense was made up.”

Momeni told the jury that Lee was prompted to attack him when he made a “bad joke” about how Lee – who was visiting from Miami and formerly lived in the Bay Area – wanted to be with his family rather than on to go to the strip club he had suggested to them. Reinstedt called it a “fabulous” invention on Monday.

Reinstedt said Momeni’s behavior when he took the witness stand last month bolstered the prosecution’s arguments and suggested he had a hot temper and was capable of murder.

“His behavior was combative, he interrogated, tried to evade,” said the prosecutor. “It gave us insight into who he really is. …that when he was here in court charged with murder and was on his absolute best behavior to make the best impression on all of you, he still couldn’t help himself.”

In summary, Reinstedt said, the defendant’s versions of the events surrounding the murder were “a series of lies.”

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins briefly attended the trial for the first time Monday “to watch closing arguments,” she told the Chronicle.

“Dane’s summary today was great,” Lee’s brother Tim “Oliver” Lee said outside the courtroom. “He really put the facts together. It’s not that complicated a case. To say that Bob plunged the knife into his own chest is beyond reality.

“Tomorrow,” when the defense makes its closing argument, “will be tough,” he said.

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