Nima Momeni’s defense claims Bob Lee took drugs with the murder weapon in closing arguments

Defendant Nima Momeni’s lawyers concluded their closing argument Tuesday with a surprising video clip that they claimed showed fatally stabbed victim and Cash App founder Bob Lee taking cocaine with the same knife used to kill him hours later became.

The defense lawyers brought the case to a dramatic conclusion with their closing arguments in the defendant’s highly publicized murder trial. The state has accused Momeni fatal attack on tech manager Lee in a remote part of San Francisco’s East Cut neighborhood on an early morning in April 2023.

Prosecutors argue that the fatal stabbing occurred after a heated discussion about his sister’s relationship with Lee and her continued drug use.

A video played for the first time in the courtroom on Tuesday showed Lee and his friend Borzu Mohazzebi apparently using cocaine outside the Battery Club just hours before the stabbing. But the item the couple used to consume the drugs was the same knife used in the murder, according to defense attorney Saam Zangeneh.

“They buried it,” Zangeneh said of the video after Tuesday’s meeting. “I guarantee you they didn’t know we found it. Because if they had known, they would have taken care of it.”

The victim’s brother, Timothy Oliver Lee, said that was impossible.

“Bob never carried a knife and Bob never took coke from a knife. To me that’s just crazy,” he said.

Defense Zangeneh used a cardboard version of the Joseph Joseph paring knife used in the fatal stabbing at the end of his team’s closing arguments and highlighted the black-and-white surveillance video, saying it was evidence that Lee had the knife all along have had over.

The claim is directly contradictory the evidence presented in the prosecution’s closing argument that Lee couldn’t have had the knife in his jacket pocket. Surveillance footage from later that night showed nothing weighing on the side of the garment as it blew in the wind.

“It is the exact same shape and size as the knife found outside the Caltrans parking lot. That’s the knife,” Zangeneh said outside the courtroom.

It was not the first time that the defense used theatrical means in its closing arguments. Previously, Zangeneh used a bag of sugar as a prop and assured the judge and jury that the plastic bag did not contain cocaine.

The moment sparked a tense exchange between the defense attorney and Lee’s former wife, Krista, who laughed mockingly as he showed the video.

Zangeneh then turned directly to her and said it wasn’t funny. Prosecutors quickly objected, and the judge intervened and restored order.

“Outbursts from a family member during closing arguments are incredibly inappropriate, unprofessional and frankly rude,” Zangeneh said.

“He calls out Krista and the people in the courtroom. This is really painful for us,” said Timothy Oliver Lee. “Nima Momeni not only killed Bob, but now he’s trying to kill his character; he’s trying to kill his legacy. And that is something we cannot bear. We cannot tolerate this.”

Momeni’s defense attorneys made their final attempt to prove their client’s innocence to the jury. They said Momeni had no motive for stabbing Lee and tried to present a lasting image that supported their claim that he acted in self-defense.

In criminal cases, prosecutors have the final say. During their rebuttal, the prosecution told jurors that the likelihood of so many coincidences coming together to make Momeni’s story possible was as if she had been struck by lightning 30 times.

They urged the jury to use common sense and return a guilty verdict. Her last words in court: “Don’t let him get away with it.”

The case is expected to go to the jury for deliberations on Wednesday. If convicted, Momeni faces 26 years to life in prison.