The murder trial of Nima Momeni, the alleged killer of tech executive Bob Lee, has been set for March 15 in San Francisco, but defense attorneys on Thursday asked a judge to move the trial out of the city, citing the “prejudicial” publication of photos of Momeni in jail.

Momeni appeared in court beside his legal team, which includes San Francisco lawyer Tony Brass and two Florida attorneys, Saam Zangeneh and Bradford Cohen. Momeni’s mother was also in court for the hearing, where she raised her hands in the shape of a heart after her handcuffed son came into the room. 

Zangeneh filed a motion to change venue because he said his client could not receive a fair trial due to unfair media coverage, including the recent publication by The Standard of photos of Momeni in his jail cell. 

“There was a photographer that went into the jail, and that photographer was allegedly there to take pictures of solitary confinements,” Cohen said. “In my 27 years, I’ve never seen a photographer go into a jail with a camera and start taking pictures of a defendant before trial. It is highly prejudicial.” 

Superior Court Judge Loretta Giorgi set a hearing regarding the motion for a change of venue for Jan. 25.

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Bradford Cohen, one of Nima Momeni’s lawyers, right, refuses to take a question from The San Francisco Standard during a press conference regarding photos of Momeni in jail on Thursday. | Source: Gina Castro/The Standard

Prosecutors have alleged that Momeni drove Lee, the Cash App founder, to a secluded street under the Bay Bridge in the early morning hours of April 4 and stabbed him twice with a kitchen knife, leading to his death hours later in a hospital.  

Momeni has been charged with murder and has been held at San Francisco’s jail in San Bruno since mid-April. Photos of Momeni in his cell published by The Standard this week revealed that he has been reading books on psychology and Napoleon Bonaparte as he awaits trial.

Momeni’s attorneys were aware of the photos prior to publication, and refused to comment to The Standard about them. They did not request that they not be published.

Outside of court on Thursday morning, Zangeneh, the attorney, said Lee was a “local luminary” and noted that hundreds of thousands of people in the Bay Area work in the tech sector.

“It’s kind of like, if a Los Angeles Laker is the victim of a homicide, do you think [his accused killer] could get a fair trial in L.A.?”

“A freelance photographer had permission to take photos inside the jail and Nima Momeni gave the photographer permission to have his photo taken. We contacted Momeni’s legal team prior to publication, and they did not raise objections or concerns about the publication of the images,” said The Standard’s editor-in-chief, Julie Makinen. “The Standard believes the images were entirely newsworthy.”

Bob Lee, Ron Conway and others attend the Build Gala in San Francisco on March 1, 2014. | Source: Drew Altizer Photography

Who Will Testify at Trial?

Prosecutors have said Momeni was upset because Lee encouraged Momeni’s sister, Khazar Momeni, to do “inappropriate” things the day before at the home of Lee’s alleged drug dealer, Jeremy Boivin, according to court documents.

But Momeni’s attorneys have argued in filings that the facts of the case do not amount to a cold-blooded killing. 

The coming trial could include many of the people who were with Lee in his last hours, including Khazar Momeni and her husband, as well as expert witnesses, Brass said in October. 

“It’s essential for us to give the complete story,” Brass said. “We are not trying to hide anything. If anything, we are trying to tell a complete story about how this incident occurred.” 

Monday’s arrest of Khazar Momeni in San Francisco on suspicion of driving under the influence and hit-and-run brought more media attention to a family already under the spotlight. 

Nima Momeni family members—Mahnaz Tayarani, left, Dr. Dino Elyassnia, center, and Khazar Momeni, right—attended the court hearing at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco on June 13, 2023. | Source: Justin Katigbak/The Standard

The other expected witnesses, Brass said, include everyone who spent any time with Lee in the hours before his death. That would include Boivin, who witnesses said gave Khazar Momeni drugs the day before Lee was killed during a party at Boivin’s apartment where Lee was present. The woman who called Khazar Momeni’s husband and brother to come and get her from the party could also testify.

“We are trying to establish the relationship between Bob and Boivin,” Brass said previously. “He’s the designer drug dealer to the stars.”

Brass said that once a date has been set, each side has to share their witnesses with each other.

Correction: This story has been updated to note the change-of-venue motion will be considered at a hearing Jan. 25.

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Due to a delay in drug test results, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office is not moving forward with a DUI case against Khazar Momeni, the sister of the man who allegedly killed tech executive Bob Lee. 

Nima Momeni has been charged with murder for allegedly killing Lee in April. 

Khazar Momeni was arrested in the Tenderloin on Nov. 25 on suspicion of driving under the influence and for an alleged hit-and-run after police officers responded to a crash at Geary and Larkin streets around 11:08 a.m. 

She was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, but the district attorney announced Monday that her office plans to discharge the case. 

“As is customary in DUI cases, our office reviews the toxicology report to inform our prosecution decisions. To date, the District Attorney’s Office has not received the toxicology report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and has not received an estimate as to when it will be presented to our office,” District Attorney Spokesperson Randy Quezada said in a statement. 

While the case was discharged, the DA can file charges later, as the case and investigation remain open, added Quezada.  Because the case was not dismissed completely, it can still be filed at a later date pending results from the investigation. 

Nima Momeni, suspect in the killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee, smiles while looking out the window of his cell at San Francisco County Jail No. 3 in San Bruno on Aug. 3. | Source: Paul Kuroda

“Discharging cases involving a blood draw for toxicology due to a delay in receiving the toxicology report is very common and not unusual,” he said. 

Khazar Momeni is a central figure in the murder case of her brother and is expected to testify at the trial. That testimony could include details about her and Lee’s drug use and what happened in the hours before Lee’s death. 

She has thus far refused to cooperate with the police investigation into the killing, according to police. 

Prosecutors allege Nima Momeni stabbed Lee to death April 4 in San Francisco after the pair argued over Lee purportedly allowing Khazar Momeni to engage “inappropriate” behavior. The day before, Khazar Momeni was found distraught and half-naked at the home of Lee’s alleged drug dealer, Jeremy Boivin. 

Witnesses told police that Boivin supplied Khazar Momeni with a drug called GHB, which is also known as a date-rape drug, during a party at his apartment a day before the fatal stabbing. 

Bob Lee and others attend the Build Gala in San Francisco on March 1, 2014. | Source: Drew Altizer Photography

The San Francisco case against Khazar Momeni is not her only recent run-in with the law. 

The 38-year-old was arrested on suspicion of DUI in the Marin County town of San Anselmo on Sept. 22 after she “rammed” her white convertible Mercedes Benz into another car on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard around 5 p.m., according to a police report of the incident. 

No one was injured in the incident, but Khazar Momeni’s car was towed, and she was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, according to the Marin County District Attorney’s Office and the incident report.

Charges have not been filed in the Marin County case.

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SAN FRANCISCO — Nine days after the fatal overnight stabbing of Bob Lee sparked an outcry about public safety in San Francisco, police said Thursday they had arrested an acquaintance of the tech executive on suspicion of murder.

In a news conference, the city’s police chief, Bill Scott, identified the suspect as Nima Momeni, 38, a technical adviser who knew Mr. Lee. Surveillance footage from the night of the murder shows Mr. Lee staggering and clinging to the side near a car near a car around 2:30 a.m. on April 4, in a residential area with high-rise buildings.

The owner of a technology company in the East Bay town of Emeryville, Mr. Momeni, was arrested there after an intensive investigation in which authorities had warned from the outset that Mr. Lee may have been killed by someone he knew and not at one random street crime. Mr. Momeni was booked into the San Francisco County Jail on Thursday morning for murder, according to jail records.

Thursday’s development undermined a growing narrative that the murder reflected a city where the professional class was threatened by indiscriminate attacks and a flawed approach to criminal justice.

Scott Wiener, a Democratic senator representing the city, said the rush to rule by tech luminaries like Elon Musk and colleagues from Mr. Lee, a well-known figure in Silicon Valley, has been both inaccurate and damaging to San Francisco, which has been struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

“That’s the danger of turning a crime into a symbol,” said Mr. Wiener. “This was a horrific, brutal murder and I am so grateful that the police solved it so quickly. And San Francisco has real public safety problems. But this particular crime doesn’t seem to have anything to do with them.”

Still, the narrative lingered even as news of the arrest spread Thursday. Jason Calacanis, a tech investor and entrepreneur, tweeted, “*Everyone* has said we don’t know the details of a single case, as has anyone who walks a few blocks in San Francisco (outside Pac Whites) where things shine.” strange to be sure) knows how dangerous the city is,” colloquially referring to the affluent neighborhood of Pacific Heights.

The arrest ended days of speculation about the death of Mr. Lee, 43, an engineering executive, who was found bleeding on a sidewalk near the Embarcadero by emergency crews at around 2:35 am on April 4.

Authorities said Mr Lee, a father of two who recently relocated to Miami after spending most of his career in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, was in San Francisco on business when he was attacked.

The murder has sparked allegations and heightened tensions between the city and its tech sector at a precarious moment as San Francisco struggles to revitalize its downtown area.

San Francisco, which has been emptied of office workers for the past three years, has seen an increase in tent camps and outdoor drug use in its public spaces, fueling complaints that the city’s compassion for the homeless and mentally ill is hampering its ability to maintain order, made difficult. Property crimes have risen during the pandemic, and enough voters felt unsafe that they ousted local prosecutor Chesa Boudin last year.

But violent crime rates have fallen or remained stable in the city of about 808,000 in recent years. Some city officials said last week San Francisco had been unfairly slandered by conservatives and tech leaders, and Thursday’s arrest of an acquaintance confirmed that.

“Therefore, you must wait for investigations before jumping to conclusions,” said Kevin Benedicto, a police commissioner who lashed out at critics after the murder, accusing that a small minority tried “to weaponize this tragedy” for political reasons “.

In the emotional aftermath of the murder, high-profile figures such as Mr. Musk, CEO of Twitter and Tesla, and Michael Arrington, founder of industry blog TechCrunch, blamed the city for Mr. Lee’s death. City officials agreed that parts of the city needed to be made safer, but disputed claims that San Francisco was a hotbed of violence.

San Francisco recorded 56 homicides in 2017 before some violent crime declined during the pandemic; In 2021 and 2022, the number of homicides rose again to 56, according to the city’s police department. In the quarter before Mr. Lee’s death, the city had a dozen homicides, two more than the year before.

However, the high-profile crime has continued to highlight the city’s problems. For example, days after Mr. Lee was killed, a former firefighter in the Marina District was attacked with a metal pipe and hospitalized; The victim’s family blamed a camp of homeless people that he had tried to evict from the upscale neighborhood. In March, the San Francisco board of directors approved a request from Mayor London Breed to spend an additional $25 million on police overtime.

Bay Area public relations manager Sam Singer is Mr. Momeni’s neighbor in a century-old steam engine factory in Emeryville, across from San Francisco, that has been converted into offices.

Mr Singer described Mr Momeni as a good neighbor, “bright, hardworking, charming”. Mr. Momeni’s office space was “a classic San Francisco Bay Area tech office,” with a pool table, high-end stereo, and gourmet food in the kitchen, Mr. Singer said.

According to Mr. Momeni’s business card, his business focuses on computer server management, cyber security and general IT support.

Mr. Lee was known to his friends and relatives as a kind, brilliant man and generous mentor, but also as an immensely energetic and social person who could be absent late even during the weekdays. His online name was “Crazy Bob,” a nickname he earned playing water polo in his youth.

He had first come to prominence as chief technology officer at payments firm Square — which changed its name to Block in 2021 — and then at MobileCoin, a San Francisco-based cryptocurrency startup, where he was chief product officer at the time of his death. Colleagues said Mr. Lee was also instrumental in the development of the Cash App mobile payment service.

Like the Marina District attack, Mr. Lee’s stabbing happened in an upscale part of town. A quiet neighborhood popular with tech workers, the area is close to downtown and not far from Google’s offices and Oracle Park stadium, home of the San Francisco Giants.

The neighborhood is a tech hub, and during the day caters to techs and other professionals with pour-over coffee shops, take-out counters, and a grocery store. But the streets tend to empty after dark as residents retreat to skyscraper condos.

Before moving to Miami — he told friends he liked the energy of the city’s tech startups — Mr. Lee lived in Mill Valley, an affluent community about 15 miles north of San Francisco in Marin County. In social media posts, his father wrote that he shared a house with his son after the death of his wife, Mr. Lee’s mother.

“Life has been an adventure with two bachelors living together and I’m so happy we’ve become so close over the past few years,” the father, Rick Lee, posted on Facebook. “Bob would give you the shirt off his back. He would never look down on anyone and adhered to a strict philosophy of non-judgment.”

Friends said Bob Lee had just finished his trip to San Francisco when he was attacked. Footage from nearby surveillance cameras, shared with news outlets and local authorities immediately after the killing, appeared to show him staggering down the nearly deserted street, pushing buttons on the security doors of a luxury apartment building and unsuccessfully attempting to wave vehicles past.

“He was drawn to big, transformative challenges, and through his work he changed the world of mobile payments for all of us,” said Ron Conway, a prominent venture capitalist and political contributor to local Democratic candidates. “His murder is a great loss to the tech community and my heart breaks for Bob’s family.”

Kalley Huang, Tim Arango and Kate Conger contributed coverage. Susan C. Beachy contributed to the research.

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