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Cops caught Bob Lee murder suspect ‘pantomiming’ stabbing on camera, prosecutors say

Defense attorneys argue that Lee attacked Nima Momeni, who was acting in self-defense.

A police officer is taking a photo with a large camera, capturing two silhouetted figures standing together in the distance.
Video shows Nima Momeni reenacting his alleged attack on Bob Lee, the prosecution says. | Source: AI illustration by Jesse Rogala/The Standard

San Francisco police surveilled accused murderer Nima Momeni in the days before his arrest and captured him on video outside his attorney’s office “pantomiming” the stabbing of Bob Lee with a private investigator, according to court documents.

Momeni is accused of killing Lee, the CEO of MobileCoin, April 3, 2023, under the Bay Bridge. Prosecutors say the killing was motivated by Lee’s relationship with Momeni’s sister Khazar. 

The prosecution hopes to use the SFPD video to establish that Momeni was not protecting himself from an attack by Lee, as his defense team claims.

A colorful courtroom sketch depicts a man with curly hair in an orange outfit next to a woman in dark attire and a necklace, both looking intently towards a microphone.
A courtroom sketch of Momeni and attorney Zoe Aron during the Aug. 1, 2023, preliminary hearing at San Francisco Superior Court. | Source: Vicki Behringer

“Mr. Momeni acted in self-defense,” defense attorney Saam Zangeneh said in court documents. “Specifically, that Mr. Momeni stood his ground after Mr. Lee attacked him with a weapon.”

Prosecutor Omid Talai wrote in a trial brief that Momeni attacked Lee and had a clearly documented motive for doing so. In that filing, Talai revealed details of the police investigation that led to Momeni’s arrest. 

‘Pantomimed’ video

Within eight hours of the fatal stabbing, police pegged Momeni as the key suspect, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. SFPD officers  tracked Momeni’s white BMW to his Emeryville home and then began following him as he visited his sister’s Millennium Tower apartment and defense attorney Paula Canny’s Burlingame office. 

A photo of a woman in glasses and a man.
The defendant's sister Khazar Momeni and MobileCoin CTO Bob Lee. | Source: Isaac Ceja/The Standard; Drew Altizer Photography

According to court documents filed by the prosecution, “Sgt. [David] Goff videotaped the defendant apparently re-enacting the murder, pantomiming three stabbing motions to the upper left torso” of Canny’s investigator Brian Hedley. “The defendant then made an overhead throwing gesture,” mirroring the way prosecutors believe the knife was thrown after the stabbing. The murder weapon — a kitchen knife — was found in a Caltrans yard near the scene of the slaying. 

Prosecutors said the video should be usable because it was taken in a public place and doesn’t violate attorney/client privilege.  

Police arrested Momeni on April 13, 2023, but the white BMW was nowhere to be found. A month later, police discovered that his mother and sister had sold the car back to the BMW dealership on Howard Street.

The prosecutors’ filings also reveal details on the case around an alleged sexual assault of Khazar, her alleged drug use, and Momeni’s state of mind after the killing.

Three men stand in a hallway
Saam Zangeneh, a lawyer for Momeni, center, speaks with Assistant District Attorney Omid Talai outside the courtroom Jan. 25. | Source: Jason Henry for The Standard

Prosecutors claim that Momeni’s motivation for killing Lee was related to an incident hours earlier at the San Francisco apartment of Lee’s alleged drug dealer, Jeremy Biovin. Court records say Khazar was found drugged and half naked at the apartment, and her brother and husband had to retrieve her. But in newly released text messages between Khazar and Momeni, she said she wasn’t assaulted, even as her brother insisted they report the incident as a rape. 

“Bob never touched [me],” she wrote. “No one did.”

Momeni’s protectiveness was also on display in earlier texts, in which he told Khazar’s drug dealer to stop selling her Xanax. 

In the days after the killing was made public, while Khazar appeared to be in shock, Momeni avoided mentioning the incident to his sister via texts. While Khazar wrote in text messages that she was “conflicted” about Lee and that the “Bob thing hit hard,” Momeni told her to lock her doors and give him her location. He said he was “glad to have her back” and had no idea what Lee did after leaving her home with him.

“I don’t know what Lee ended up doing,” Momeni texted her. She asked him where he dropped off Lee, but Momeni never responded.

Jonah Owen Lamb can be reached at jonah@sfstandard.com