SAN FRANCISCO - The murder trial of a tech consultant in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee begins Monday in San Francisco, a year and a half after the entrepreneur was found staggering on a deserted downtown San Francisco street seeking help.
Prosecutors say Nima Momeni, 40, planned the April 4 attack after a dispute over his younger sister, Khazar, with whom Lee was friends. They say Momeni took a knife from his sister's condo, drove Lee to a secluded area and stabbed him three times, then fled.
Defense lawyers disagree, and they say that Lee, high on drugs, attacked Momeni.
KTVU's Christien Kafton will be in San Francisco Superior Court beginning Monday and throughout the duration of the trial.
Follow along here for live updates from the courtroom.
Under cross-examination, Officer Rinaldi cannot remember who set up cones and tape around the knife officers discovered in the Caltrans lot. He's excused from the stand and prosecutors call SFPD Sgt. Paul McIntosh to the stand. McIntosh says security guard at 403 Main Street showed him video that was picked up by cameras on the building. The video shows Bob Lee at the building. Prosecutors play the video from that night. Video shows the exterior/front of 403 Main Street at about 2:35 a.m. The video shows Bob Lee stumble into the frame and collapse on the ground. Then he gets up.
In court, Momeni watches the video closely and takes notes.
Court is back in session.
Assistant District Attorney Reinstedt begins playing the body-worn camera of the first officers on scene.
"Hey, who did this to you, where are you stabbed, man?" jurors hear on the video. Officers can be seen giving CPR. Bob Lee's family members watch the video, partially covering their faces and leaning in to one another.
The video shows Lee unresponsive on the ground. Momeni does not watch the entire video, instead he appears to be writing, and occasionally looking up at the video.
The defense raises questions about why the video from Officer Jackson's bodyworn camera is being shown as Officer Rinaldi testified. The judge takes the afternoon break before playing the video and will take that time to consider the issue.
Afternoon break.
As the case is underway, prosecutors quietly come to Bob Lee's family before playing the video, to let them know that they can leave the room if they choose to because of the nature of the video.
Back on the record, Rinaldi confirms that he took several photos of Bob Lee on the ground the night he died.
The photos appear to show Bob Lee, lying on his back, with his shirt pulled up slightly and red and blue lights. Rinaldi confirms he and others were using bodyworn cameras when they responded to the scene.
Prosecutors establish that SFPD Joseph Rinaldi was dispatched to the 911 call. Rinaldi used GPS to track down Bob Lee, and found him unresponsive on the ground with bloody clothes.
Rinaldi said he took photos of the scene. Before the photos are shown to the jury, the defense asks for a sidebar. Prosecutors and defense attorneys go into the judge's chambers.
Prosecutor Dane Reinstedt is beginning the examination of Officer Rinaldi.
Prosecutors call SFPD Joseph Rinaldi to the witness stand. He was on patrol for SFPD Southern Station on the night Bob Lee was killed.
Family members of Bob Lee hold their heads in their hands and rub their eyes as a recording of his 911 call is played in court.
On the call, Bob Lee can be heard repeatedly asking for help and seems unable to answer the dispatcher's questions about where he is. After several minutes, sirens can be heard as San Francisco police officers arrive to assist Lee.
Defense to the jury: "Pay attention to the evidence. At 2:30 that morning, Nima Momeni was forced to defend himself and forced to stand his ground. That's how the evidence is presented."
The defense ends its opening statement.
The judge asks if prosecutors would like to begin presenting evidence, which prosecutors respond with a yes. Prosecutors will play and give the jury a transcript of Bob Lee's 911 call.
"People on these long term cocaine benders are aggressive, they use violence," said the defense.
The defense said it was a case of self-defense. The defense say that Nima Momeni had extensive martial arts training and used it when he was attacked by Bob Lee.
"We're going to show you how, at around 2:30 a.m. after a 90-hour drug-fueled bender, Bob Lee, with his right hand, took a knife out of his pocket in an aggressive manner to attack Nima," the defense said.
Momeni's attorney, Saam Zangeneh, is working to poke holes in the motive prosecutors laid out. "The hours leading up to this, this motive they're trying to tell you, doesn't exist, and we have the text messages between Bob and Nima to prove it," he said.
Court resumes.
Momeni's defense attorney, Saam Zangeneh begins his opening statements. Zangeneh said the victim, Bob Lee, only had six hours of sleep in a 91-hour period because of cocaine use.
"What does the knife tell us? Well, there is something, ladies and gentlemen, called DNA and the DNA here tells us a whole hell of a lot," prosecutor Omid Talai said, adding that Lee's blood is on the knife blade.
"And what do you think we learned about who was holding that knife, whose DNA is on the handle of the Joseph Joseph kitchen knife that was used to kill Bob Lee?" Talai asked. "The defendant."
"We will ask you at the end of this trial to convict the defendant of murder," Talai said to the jury.
Prosecution ends opening statements. Court to reconvene at 1:30 p.m.
The judge welcomed jurors back in, and told them that while she is wearing a medical mask, they do not have to if they don't want to.
"As the last mask-wearing judge in San Francisco Superior court, I reserve the right to change that as we track flu and COVID numbers."
The defense objects repeatedly as the prosecutor reads a text exchange between Nima Momeni and his sister, Khazar Momeni.
"This text was sent between two people who had no idea that a jury would be reading them," defense attorney Sam Zangana said.
Prosecutors say Momeni was already trying to establish a story by saying to his sister that he dropped Bob Lee off at a strip club or bar.
Sister Khazar Momeni's text read "Nima, you're f--king psychotic sometimes."
Lead prosecutor Omid Talai begins opening statements by telling the jurors that Lee was "stabbed through the heart and left to die."
Talai continued: "Ladies and gentlemen, you are seated in court with a murderer... a coward who stabbed a man three times."
The prosecutor says one of the upcoming witnesses came over to hang out with Lee the day before the killing and there was cocaine present as well as nitrous oxide.
Momeni then gets on the phone and asks what was happening with his sister. A witness overheard Momeni asking: "What about the girls getting naked?"
According to the prosecutor, Momeni thought something happened at the get-together and he was going to do something about it.
Lee went to the Millennium building to his sister's condo. They leave shortly before 2 a.m. A camera in the building hotel picks them up, and they are seen getting into Momeni's white BMW.
"But the defendant does not drive Bob home," Talai said. "He takes him here, on the 400 block of Main Street with the Bay Bridge overhead with no one and nothing around...Bob dies about a block from here."
Talai said that "all of a sudden," Momeni advances toward Lee, and then speeds home to the East Bay 14 minutes later.
When the police get to the scene, they see a trail of blood.
Police found the murder weapon, a Joseph Joseph knife, that prosecutors say defendant threw weapon over a Caltrans fence.
Talai said that prosecutors have text evidence showing Lee texted his sister, "Hey, we gotta talk."
The jury has entered Department 28.
Jurors are finding their seats and preparing to be sworn in. The clerk is standing in front of them as they find their assigned seats.
Judge has reconsidered cameras in court, says she has reconsidered and has reached same conclusion: no photography and no recording
The judge says at least one juror has raised concerns about safety post-trial
Opening statements are set to begin Monday morning from the San Francisco courthouse. Momeni, who has pleaded not guilty, faces 26 years to life if convicted. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Alexandra Gordon has told jurors the trial could last until mid-December.
Momeni, who lives in nearby Emeryville, California, has been in custody since his arrest days after Lee died at a San Francisco hospital. Momeni's mother has been a steadfast presence at court hearings, and he is close to his sister.