In his third day of testimony Nima Momeni, who is on trial for the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee seemed to contradict some of his earlier statements.
For the most part, Momeni answered the questions about the April 2023 incident and aftermath using very similar phrasing as he did during two days of testimony last week. Most significantly, Momeni testified earlier that the altercation between Lee and himself began over a “joke” he made to Lee about spending time with his family instead of going to a strip club.
Judge Alexandra Gordon, who asked questions through the morning on behalf of the jurors, asked Momeni what happened after this joke and whether Momeni ever apologized for it.
That’s when Momeni mentioned knowing Lee was in town to see his children.
This raised an issue: Last week, under questioning from prosecutor Omid Talai, Momeni said he wasn’t aware of Lee having any family.
Judge Gordon later circled back to the inconsistency.
“Do you recall Mr. Talai asking you whether it would surprise you to know that Mr. Lee had a good relationship with his family?” Gordon asked. “And do you recall that you said, ‘I didn’t even know that Bob had a family?’”
Momeni took a long pause before responding. “I — knew he had a family,” he said. “My sister had said he was in town … to hang out with the kids and family.”
“So … you did actually know that he had a family?” Gordon asked.
“I just — he didn’t act like it,” Momeni said.
Momeni testified today and last week that when he was driving with Lee in the early morning of April 4, 2023, they pulled over, and got out of the car under the Bay Bridge.
Lee, he said, wanted to continue partying and suggested going to a strip club. Momeni testified last week that he made a comment about spending time with family over visiting strip clubs, and that the comment drove Lee to attack him with a knife he pulled from the pocket of his jacket.
Talai: You don’t have any [information] from your sister who knew him, saying he’s always in town and has a good relationship with his family?
Momeni: There was zero information about his family, we never talked about his family.
Momeni: In fact, when he was hanging out with us, I didn’t even know he had a family.
The other instances of Momeni contradicting earlier testimony were on minor issues such as whether he took a line or a “small bump” of cocaine the night of the stabbing.
Jurors also asked many questions clarifying Momeni’s actions after the stabbing occurred. They asked whether Momeni called the police about his sister’s alleged sexual assault earlier in the day or about Lee allegedly attacking him the following morning when the altercation occurred.
Momeni repeated again today that the stabbing must have occurred as Momeni attempted to control Lee’s arm, and today added that he still couldn’t believe what had happened. Prosecutors, meanwhile, have alleged that Momeni, believing his sister was sexually assaulted, was angry at Lee and lured him to the dark street under the Bay Bridge to carry out the attack.
“Why didn’t you call the police after Mr. Lee attacked you? And why didn’t you, for example, pursue an assault case against him,” the judge asked on behalf of the jurors.
“Everything seemed fine at the time,” said Momeni who instead warned his sister not to let Lee come back over to her place. Momeni has maintained that he had no idea that Lee was injured and learned of his death from a news article. At that time, he said, he contacted attorneys to “protect” himself.
Jurors also asked Momeni to clarify when his car began giving him issues. He testified last week that he had his white BMW serviced in March, but that it began giving him issues shortly after the April 4, 2023 incident. So he took it to his mother’s house in Mill Valley.
Police investigators, who began surveilling Momeni on April 5, never found Momeni’s car or observed it at his Emeryville home, a fact prosecutors have noted as suspicious.
Momeni stepped down from the witness stand shortly before noon, and is not expected to return.
Later in the afternoon, retired SFPD officer Steve Pomatto who worked in defensive tactics testified before the jury, reiterating his statements in a pre-trial hearing that Lee’s external wounds were consistent with Momeni’s self-defense argument. This would entail Lee pulling a knife and Momeni grabbing Lee’s hand or wrist to push the knife back into Lee.
Talai attempted to discredit Pomatto, bringing up allegations that he had lied on a job application and had never led homicide investigations while with the police department.
Even so, Pomatto maintained that while other scenarios were possible, the “most reasonable explanation” for Lee’s wounds would be that Lee was the original aggressor.
Pomatto will continue to testify tomorrow, and the defense team is expected to call only one additional witness. Depending on a ruling from the judge, prosecutors may call rebuttal witnesses.
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Hawk on the house
Hawk on the house Source: missionlocal.org
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