The man convicted of murdering Cash App founder Bob Lee in San Francisco in 2023 was sentenced Tuesday.
Nima Momeni’s lawyers were seeking a new trial this week after a recent appeal under the Racial Justice Act was rejected. The defense filed a new motion at trial based on other allegations.
Momeni was convicted of second-degree murder in December 2024 for the stabbing death of Lee.
Legal analyst Steven Clark joins NBC Bay Area to discuss the conviction of Nima Momeni for the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee.
Members of Lee’s family addressed the court Tuesday. Among them were his 18-year-old daughter, Scout Lee, who spoke directly to Momeni.
“You didn’t just end his life; you ended an entire future built around one man,” she told Momeni, according to media reports.
Momeni, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, claimed he acted in self-defense. He told Lee’s family he understood their loss.
“Unfortunately, we have completely different understandings of what happened,” Momeni said.
Police said Lee, a renowned technology mogul, and Momeni knew each other and had argued over Momeni’s sister.
Prosecutors said Momeni planned the attack on Lee, driving him to a secluded location under the Bay Bridge and stabbing him three times, including once in the heart, with a knife he took from his sister’s kitchen. They said Momeni was angry with Lee for introducing her younger sister to a drug dealer who she said gave her GHB and other drugs and then sexually assaulted her.
Body camera video shows Lee walking along San Francisco’s main street in the early morning before finally collapsing near a residential building.
Lee later died from his injuries, but not before calling 911. This phone call was presented at trial.
Momeni testified on the stand that it was Lee who attacked him with a knife, angry after the technology consultant chastised him for spending more time with his family instead of looking for a strip club that night. Momeni, who studies martial arts, said he did not realize he had mortally wounded Lee or even that Lee was injured.
Lee had created the mobile payments service Cash App and was the product manager of the cryptocurrency MobileCoin when he died. He had recently moved to Miami from the San Francisco Bay Area, where his ex-wife, Krista Lee, lives with their two children, and had returned to California for a visit.
Jurors ultimately rejected the first-degree murder charge, which required prosecutors to prove Momeni acted deliberately, willfully and with premeditation. Second-degree murder does not require premeditation.
Momeni was only sentenced on Tuesday due to the appeals.
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