A protective brother who killed to defend his sister, or a man who defended himself against a drug-fueled attack prompted by a bad joke? These are the two narratives attorneys painted this week as jurors begin deliberations in Nima Momeni’s murder trial.
Prosecutors argued that Momeni stabbed tech founder Bob Lee three times on April 4, 2023, in revenge for his sister being sexually assaulted. That’s the simple story the district attorney’s office put forth shortly after Momeni’s arrest, and it remained the story in the prosecution’s closing argument Monday.
“The evidence shows [a] deep, deep motive, one that’s perhaps understandable,” said Assistant District Attorney Dane Reinstedt. “Protectiveness of the defendant’s little sister is what led to all of this.”
The defense on Tuesday argued that the prosecution picked and chose evidence to present the jury with an incomplete and untruthful story based on what Momeni’s attorneys described as a nonsensical motive.
“Every sign points to that they were getting along,” Saam Zangeneh said, referring to Momeni and Lee in the hours before the stabbing. “Their motive is gone. C’mon, let’s be real, there’s no motive here.”
Zangeneh cited testimony and text messages between the two, arguing that Nima never had ill will toward Lee. Instead, he said, Lee, who had been on drugs for days with little sleep before the killing, snapped and attacked his client.
In a theatrical moment, Zangeneh showed video surveillance, seen for the first time in court, which he said shows the Cash App founder in possession of the murder weapon, a three-and-a-half-inch paring knife, in the hours leading up to his killing.
“Look at the size,” Zangeneh said, pointing to the screen. “That’s the knife!”
Krista Lee, Bob’s former wife, said what Lee was holding was not a knife but a metal stay for a dress shirt collar, which she said was something Lee had been known to use for taking drugs. “I should only hope that in the evidence, it will come up,” she said.
The defense’s flashy storytelling attempted to cast doubt on nearly every element of the DA’s portrayal of the killing — most important, Momeni’s motive, which Zangeneh insisted was “sinking” with every piece of evidence.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations Wednesday morning.
Although Momeni’s attorneys said their client had little reason to be angry with Lee, Reinstedt argued that the defendant thought his sister had been sexually assaulted by Lee’s friend Jeremy Boivin on April 3, 2023, the night before the murder, at a party where he gave her the date rape drug GHB.
Reinstedt pointed to a series of phone calls and texts Momeni made to people who were present at the party. The prosecutor cited testimony from a friend of Lee who said Momeni made an angry call to Lee about Boivin the night before the killing.
“There are two clear, competing versions of events,” Reinstedt said. “Only one of those versions is actually reasonable. … Nothing about the defendant’s story makes any sense.”
The defense, meanwhile, attempted to discredit the motive put forward by the prosecution by citing testimony from several witnesses who said that by the end of April 3, Momeni believed his sister had not been assaulted.
DNA and video evidence
DNA evidence on the knife was a focus of both the defense and the prosecution.
Reinstedt said in court that Lee’s DNA did not appear on the knife’s handle, which is inconsistent with the defense’s narrative that he gripped the knife as he attempted to attack Momeni.
“We’re saying that Bob held this knife with a death grip, and yet didn’t leave his DNA on it?” Resinstadt posed to the jury.
The defense countered that the DNA testing was faulty.
“They didn’t retest because they liked their answer,” Zangeneh argued.
Another central but inconclusive piece of evidence was a video of the two men struggling under the Bay Bridge, where the stabbing occurred. The grainy video, Reinstedt argued, shows Momeni lunging toward Lee several times.
Zangeneh claimed that the video proves Lee was the aggressor, noting that it shows Momeni backed off from Lee and let him walk away. “If you’re planning to kill someone, and you see them walking away, and they know you, would you let them walk away?” he said.
Zangeneh also cited a separate video he said his team unearthed from thousands of hours of surveillance footage the prosecutor provided, which he said shows Lee holding a knife with the same measurements of the Joseph Joseph knife later used to kill him, using it to snort cocaine.
‘A carefully crafted story’
Reinstedt attacked Momeni’s wavering story of what happened in the days and hours that led up to Lee’s death, saying it was filled with inconsistencies.
“[Momeni] had the opportunity to see all the evidence and to tell you a carefully crafted story around that evidence,” Reinstedt said, noting that Momeni wasn’t wounded in the alleged attack by Lee.
Zangeneh aimed his final critique at the DA’s office, saying it would do anything to win the case, including sully the name of one of its own. Prosecutors had attacked the character of a former police officer who testified as an expert witness for the defense.
Reinstedt rounded out his closing argument by noting that Momeni’s actions after the killing — throwing away the knife and failing to call 911, hiding his car and jacket, and never telling anyone aside from his sister that he was allegedly attacked by Lee — call into question the validity of the defendant’s story.