Jury begins deliberations in stabbing death of Cash App founder
By Melanie Woodrow
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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The jury in the murder trial of Nima Momeni, who is suspected of fatally stabbing Cash App founder Bob Lee last year, began deliberations on Wednesday.
Momeni’s defense attorneys are hoping that the video they played of Lee allegedly doing drugs off a knife hours prior to his murder will introduce enough doubt in jurors’ minds about the origin of the murder weapon to find Momeni not guilty.
12 jurors must unanimously find Momeni guilty or not guilty of 1st-degree murder before they can potentially consider a lesser charge of 2nd-degree murder. Similarly, they must unanimously find Momeni guilty or not guilty of 2nd-degree murder before they can consider the lesser charges of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter. If they can not come to a unanimous decision on a higher charge, they must inform the judge. Jurors may not use the internet during deliberations but they can examine all of the exhibits in this case.
“I’ve got nothing but the utmost respect for our jurors who have a very tough decision ahead of them and ever so grateful for our legal team and most of all our judge and more so the San Francisco Police Department, sorry, I’m getting a little teary eyed on this one. I think that they’ve all done a phenomenal job and unfortunately for our family, we’ll never stop fighting for Bob’s legacy,” said Krista Lee, Bob Lee’s former wife.
“You do what you can on both sides, the prosecution and the defense, we put on our case, they put on their case, now we wait, that’s all you can do, how are we feeling? How do we feel? It doesn’t matter how we feel. It matters what the jury feels,” said Nima Momeni’s attorney Saam Zangeneh.
Bob Lee’s former wife, Krista, was wearing a heart and knife necklace today made for her. She said she will always have a dagger in her heart. Lee’s three stab wounds included one to the heart.
Regarding Momeni’s defense attorneys playing video of Lee allegedly doing drugs off a knife hours prior to his murder outside of the Battery Social Club, Krista said it wasn’t a knife but rather a metal collar stay that Lee had used for years. Momeni’s defense attorneys told reporters if that were true, it would have been found on him.
Zangeneh said, “Their theory has a hole in it now.”
Jurors can set their own schedule for deliberations though the judge did say she expects them to put in a full day of deliberations daily. She also said she has the utmost faith in them.
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