In a contentious second day on the witness stand in his own murder trial, Nima Momeni struggled — or refused — to provide much detail about the April 2023 stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee, or to explain his behavior in the days after the killing.
Instead, Momeni was argumentative under cross-examination by prosecutor Omid Talai, who attempted to cast doubt on Momeni’s claim that he acted in self-defense.
On Wednesday, Momeni offered jurors his narrative of what happened in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023, when Lee ended up bleeding out in the street with three stab wounds. Momeni testified that Lee had pulled a knife on him after he cracked a “bad joke” about spending more time with his family instead of strip clubs. Lee’s reaction forced Momeni to defend himself.
Momeni said that he had no idea Lee was injured and did not learn of his death until the following day.
Throughout today’s testimony, Talai and Momeni traded barbs, and at times Momeni became emotional and wiped away tears. The arguing drove Momeni’s own attorney, Saam Zangeneh, to at one point shush his client from across the courtroom. On multiple occasions Zangeneh nodded and mouthed “yes” in apparent exasperation with his client who evaded questions. Momeni paid him no mind.
Later during questioning, Zangeneh blamed Talai for the tension, suggesting it arose from the prosecutor inaccurately portraying Momeni to the jury.
“Is this … a window into why you’ve been so confrontational with Mr. Talai?” Zangeneh asked this afternoon. Yes, Momeni said.
Talai, speaking with a tone of disbelief throughout the day, questioned Momeni’s claim that he had no animus toward Lee, or that he was unaware of Lee’s injuries or death until he read news headlines about it.
“Would you agree that it doesn’t make sense for a person who’s not angry at all and having a good time to to get a knife without a sheath on it, and put it in their pocket?” Talai asked, referring to Momeni’s claim that Lee drew a knife from his pocket.
Momeni responded, “People do crazy things when they’re high.”
Momeni said he was saddened and surprised to learn that Lee had died, and “even more sad” to find out that he was involved.
Talai: So you thought it was possible, and maybe even reasonable that after your altercation with Bob … that someone else on Main Street maybe jumped out of the bushes or something and stabbed him to death?
Momeni: There was houseless people on the street.
Talai: Is that — do you think that’s possible? You thought that was possible?
Momeni: I said it was possible for him to have multiple knives … there were homeless people on the street. I don’t know what he did. There was a homeless center camp right next door there.
Talai: So you thought maybe an unhoused person stabbed Bob on Main Street on the same block, on the same night where you were with him. You thought that was possible?
Momeni: …I was just thinking what was impossible, which was him dying as a result of the altercation. He walked away just fine.
Text messages with Khazar Momeni
Talai also showed the jury text messages that show Momeni apparently evading text messages from his sister, Khazar, who is at the center of the prosecution’s case. Prosecutors say Momeni was upset with Lee over something “inappropriate” he believed happened between Lee and his sister.
After Lee’s stabbing, Momeni sent a text to his sister telling her to lock her doors and not let Lee inside. Momeni explained on the stand today that he was in shock, and had spoken to Khazar on the phone and told her verbally that Lee attacked him.
Khazar, who testified for four days earlier this month, did not say that she knew of any attack.
Lee and Momeni left Khazar’s home together around 2 a.m. on April 4, 2023, and the stabbing occurred around 2:30 a.m. as the two men stood on Main Street under the Bay Bridge. Text messages show Khazar, who was Lee’s friend, later asking Momeni what he knew about Lee’s night. Momeni did not respond to his sister, who he said he was ignoring while she was on drugs.
When Khazar wrote to her brother that if she found out someone hurt Lee, she would “have no mercy,” Momeni said he didn’t address the message because he didn’t know what she was talking about.
And when Khazar said she would “get to the bottom” of the case and “find out” what had happened to her friend Lee, and asked Momeni where he had dropped Lee off that morning, Momeni again didn’t respond. Instead he texted her about starting a lawsuit for her alleged sexual assault.
“Why didn’t you then text back and say, ‘I told you, Bob attacked me last night, he went crazy,’” Talai asked. “Instead, you just ignore.”
“I’m sorry if it doesn’t satisfy your expectations, my communication style,” Momeni responded.
The alleged attack
Talai tried to elicit details of Lee’s alleged aggression over Momeni’s “joke,” but Momeni offered little additional detail.
Asked what Lee said that night, Momeni gave some phrases Lee used, like threats to “fuck [Momeni] up,” but said he did not remember the specifics.
Talai asked how close the two men had been standing to each other, and Momeni told Talai he was unsure, and to check the surveillance video. Talai attempted to question Momeni about when Lee purportedly drew the knife after Momeni’s alleged joke.
After some time avoiding the question, Momeni estimated one minute. Questioned further by Talai about whether he was certain about the estimate, Momeni said he didn’t recall.
When Momeni and Talai got into a particularly heated exchange, often ending with Zangeneh objecting or the judge interrupting, Momeni’s mother, who watches every hearing attentively, would momentarily walk out of the courtroom.
Part of Talai’s strategy appeared to be to show jurors a more aggressive side to Momeni, who on Wednesday appeared soft-spoken and polite. Talai asked about Momeni’s “up and down” emotions, whether he makes “bad decisions” during an argument, and suggested Momeni could be “very, very, very angry” about his sister allegedly being sexually assaulted.
Talai attempted to connect Momeni’s avoidant responses on the witness stand to how he may have acted in the lead-up to the stabbing.
Talai:You asked me a question, despite being the witness whose being cross-examined, within a minute today. Is that a coincidence that you like to … ask questions?
Momeni: Wouldn’t you?
[Zangeneh objects, and the judge overrules the objection.]
Talai: You just asked me another question … You want answers from me, in the same way you wanted answers from everybody about what happened at Jeremy’s Boivin’s, is that right?
Momeni: That’s right.
Momeni and his sister, who is at the center of the case, did not speak for a couple days after the stabbing. Momeni said this was because she was on a drug bender, and was continuing to spend time with Jeremy Boivin, a man who she alleged sexually assaulted her the evening before Lee’s death.
Talai questioned this, and insinuated that Momeni was abandoning his sister, who he is close to, during a difficult time.
“You, as this loving brother, and Khazar’s best friend, you don’t text her for two days because you’re upset she is with this awful human being who rapes?” Talai asked. “Is that what your testimony is?”
Momeni said his sister was grown and that he could not police everything she did.
Momeni’s defense
Defense attorney Zangeneh bit back by guiding Momeni through explanations for the questions Talai raised.
The jacket Momeni wore the night of the killing was never found, but investigators never asked for it. Investigators also never asked for Momeni’s white BMW that he drove Lee in, Momeni said.
Talai suggested that the days after Lee’s death were the only time in months that Momeni and Khazar had gone more than a full day without texting. Zangeneh showed jurors multiple examples to the contrary.
And Zangeneh said that Momeni was not being flippant about his sister’s sexual assault, but suggested that he was instead angry with his sister for being insensitive.
Momeni said he had been working to try to have his own father arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting Khazar when they were younger in Iran. He testified that he had booked and paid for a trip to meet his father in Turkey, with the idea to lure him there from Iran and have him arrested. In a text message to his sister from March 2023, Momeni seemed to outline that plan.
Zangeneh: When he said that you don’t care if your sister had been raped, that’s not correct.
Momeni: Absolutely not.
When Zangeneh asked Momeni about the plan to have his own father arrested, Momeni became very quiet and wiped tears from his eyes.
Jurors had a large stack of questions for Momeni that will be asked by the judge in court on Monday.
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