By JANIE HAR
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Defense attorneys for a tech consultant charged in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee made their final arguments Tuesday before the high-profile murder case goes to jurors.
Prosecutors, who delivered their closing Monday, say Nima Momeni planned the April, 2023, attack after hearing that the tech mogul had introduced his younger sister to a drug dealer who she says gave her GHB and other drugs and then sexually assaulted her at his apartment.
Momeni lured Lee to an isolated spot by the Bay Bridge, stabbed him three times with a knife from his sister’s kitchen set and pealed away in his car, they say.
But defense attorney Saam Zangeneh said Tuesday that prosecutors have not presented the whole truth to jurors, omitting details and failing to investigate avenues that would not help their cause.
“The government’s whole case rests on motive,” he said. “Because without motive, without a story as to why my client would have a knife in his pocket leaving his sister’s apartment, this story doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t add up.”
Momeni faces 26 years to life in prison if convicted of murder.
Surveillance video shows the two men leaving the posh condo of the defendant’s sister, Khazar Momeni, around 2 a.m. and getting into Momeni’s BMW. Other surveillance footage then shows them getting out of the car near the Bay Bridge.
Momeni testified he stopped his car after going over a pothole that caused Lee to spill the beer he was holding. Momeni said he then cracked a joke suggesting Lee should spend the last night of his visit with family instead of trying to find a strip club to keep the party going.
That’s when Lee suddenly pulled a knife out of his jacket pocket, Momeni said. He said Lee later walked away, showing no signs he was injured.
The prosecution on Monday told jurors details about why Momeni’s story was not backed up by evidence. They said Momeni never called police to report Lee’s alleged attack or even after he learned Lee had died of stab wounds on the street where he had last seen him.
Zangeneh did not dwell on details of the attack Tuesday morning.
Instead, he attacked the credibility of one of Lee’s friends who testified that hours before the stabbing, Momeni grilled Lee over the phone about what happened to his sister while at the drug dealer’s apartment.
He also replayed surveillance video showing that Lee had been angry at one point, and not the peaceful “teddy bear” family and friends described him to be. He said Lee was on a multiday binge of alcohol, cocaine and ketamine and that toxicology reports downplayed just how much was in his system.
Zangeneh questioned why the old “beat-up” paring knife used in the stabbing was not introduced into evidence so jurors could see it in detail. He suggested Lee may have brought the knife along in order to snort more cocaine, or that it may have come from someone else’s kitchen entirely.
He said Lee and Momeni were friendly and on good terms when they left his sister’s condo, and that Momeni was upset with the drug dealer, and not with Lee.
Lee was found staggering on a deserted downtown San Francisco street at 2:30 a.m., dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. He later died at a hospital.
The defense continues its closing argument Tuesday. The prosecution will have a chance to make rebuttal remarks before the case goes to jurors.
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