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Two former colleagues and friends of Cash App founder Bob Lee testified today that while the homicide victim used drugs, Lee was not aggressive or erratic. The testimony countered a narrative from his alleged killer that Lee first drew the knife that killed him.
Nima Momeni, the man on trial for Lee’s murder, has testified that Lee attacked him with a kitchen knife over a “bad joke,” about spending more time with his family rather than going to a strip club and that Momeni redirected the weapon toward Lee. Momeni’s defense team rested its case earlier this week.
Prosecutors today called three rebuttal witnesses to testify to Lee’s character, as well as a San Francisco police captain intended to discredit a former sergeant who on Tuesday testified in support of the plausibility of Momeni’s self-defense claim.
Kristina Champion, who worked with Lee when he was chief product officer at MobileCoin and another company prior to that, estimated Lee was under the influence of drugs about 80 percent of the time she spent with him socially. During some periods, she saw him at least once a week outside of work.
But despite that, she and two other friends of Lee said they never saw him get into confrontations and that he instead resolved conflicts. The judge only allowed the character witnesses to testify to Lee’s behavior while under the influence — not in more general terms.
Under the influence of drugs, Lee was “a consistently safe person,” said Champion, and said he “loved hugs.” She said she went on multiple trips with Lee to Cabo San Lucas and Miami, and though he used drugs frequently, she did not believe he was addicted.
Prosecutor Omid Talai: Did you know cocaine to ever make Bob aggressive?
Champion: No
Talai: And … did you ever experience if it did make Bob agitated?
Champion: No
Talai: You were asked if the cocaine makes a hypothetical individual angry. Did you ever see it make Bob angry?
Champion: No
Carlos Whitt, who said he and Lee became fast friends while working at Google in 2004, agreed.
“He’s kind of like a teddy bear … he’s incredibly affectionate, he’s incredibly sweet, he loves to talk highly about his friends,” Whitt said, as friends and family members in the courtroom nodded along. “So all of those … qualities sort of just got enhanced.”
Whitt, who also worked with Lee at Square, said that Lee was “the opposite of aggressive” when he was under the influence of drugs, primarily cocaine. He described a time when he was in a brief confrontation with someone else, and Lee calmed both parties down to a “laughing situation.”
“When I’ve seen him under the influence for 20 years, and he’s never exhibited anything hostile, or even negative toward anyone.”
Lee’s friend Lauren Weiniger said Lee was “amazing at diffusing a situation” while on drugs.
The character witnesses said they did not see Lee grow violent or carry weapons.
Lee’s brother, Oliver, said after hearing the testimony that his brother “would’ve appreciated his friends taking the risk … opening their lives to scrutiny.”
Oliver added that he was relieved to reach the end of five weeks of testimony.
Momeni’s attorneys, however, said they may call additional rebuttal witnesses. Doing so would require a ruling from the judge.
Defense attorneys attempted to show that the weekend in April 2023 when Lee was stabbed may have been different than usual — that Lee may have taken more drugs than normal — and alluded to the possibility of him acting differently.
Investigators, for example, found a rock of cocaine in Lee’s hotel room after his death. Champion sounded surprised and said she did not know him to carry such quantities. Momeni’s attorney Saam Zangeneh also noted that batches of cocaine could vary in potency or contents.
At the time of his stabbing, Lee’s toxicology report showed he was on multiple substances, but today’s witnesses could not recall a time when he combined different drugs.
Momeni’s attorneys brought up different topics to apparently sully Lee’s reputation, including how often Lee went to strip clubs while living in Miami, whether he was kicked out of one, and whether Lee solicited prostitutes — a question that elicited a vehement “No!” from Weiniger, Lee’s friend.
Many of these questions were left unanswered by witnesses, and Lee’s brother later called them “salacious” and “upsetting.”
Self-defense witness credibility
Prosecutors also called SFPD Captain Brien Hoo, who testified that retired Sgt. Steven Pomatto lied to him earlier in his career at the police department.
Pomatto, a key witness who said he believed the most likely scenario leading to Lee’s stabbing was Momeni’s self-defense, allegedly mischaracterized his duties in the U.S. Navy to Hoo when he applied to a specialized unit at the police department.
For more than an hour, Hoo explained that he reported Pomatto’s purported lie to his superior at the time, and Pomatto was rejected for the role — although there was no paper trail of this. Pomatto ultimately reapplied and was accepted to that unit, with Hoo’s recommendation.
Defense attorneys on Tuesday slammed the surprise attack on Pomatto’s reputation. Defense attorney Tony Brass accused the police department of embracing Pomatto “when it worked for them,” and questioned why Pomatto had no disciplinary record if he lied to his superiors.
The trial will resume Dec. 2. Jury instructions and deliberations are expected to begin that week.
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Source: missionlocal.org