SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – On Tuesday morning, a San Francisco jury announced it had found Nima Momeni guilty of second degree murder in the death of Cash App founder Bob Lee.
Earlier that morning, the Silicon Valley executive's ex-wife, Krista Lee, told Nexstar's KRON4 that anything less than a first degree murder verdict would be an injustice, calling the process "excruciating."
A crowd could be seen outside the courthouse with members of the media lining the hallways inside as they awaited the jury's decision in the high-profile case.
Jurors took seven days to deliver their verdict against Nima Momeni in the April 4, 2023, death of Lee, a beloved tech mogul who was found staggering on a deserted downtown street, dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. Lee, 43, later died at a hospital.
“We think justice was done here today,” the victim’s brother, Tim Oliver Lee, told reporters. "What matters today is that we had a guilty verdict and Nima Momeni is going away for a very long time.”
Prosecutors said Momeni planned the attack on Lee, driving him to an isolated spot under the Bay Bridge and stabbing him three times, including once to the heart, with a knife he took from his sister's kitchen. They say Momeni was angry with Lee for introducing his younger sister to a drug dealer she says gave her GHB and other drugs and then sexually assaulted her.
But Momeni testified on the stand that Lee was the one who attacked him with a knife, angry after the tech consultant chided him about spending more time with his family instead of searching for a strip club that night. Momeni, who studies martial arts, claimed self-defense and said he didn't realize he had fatally wounded Lee or that Lee was even hurt. The jury ultimately rejected Momeni's self-defense claim
The case has drawn national attention, partly given Lee’s status in the tech world. At first, his death enflamed debate over public safety in San Francisco as X owner Elon Musk took to the social media site to post that “violent crime in SF is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately.”
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the verdict showed that the killing was a targeted crime and not an example of random lawlessness in the city.
“We are a city committed to accountability, we are a city committed to public safety,” Jenkins told reporters after the hearing.
The charge of second-degree murder carries a sentence of 16 years to life.
