Cash App Founder Suspected Killer Pleaded Not Guilty
Nima Momeni, a tech advisor, entered a not-guilty plea to a homicide charge in connection with the stabbing death of Cash App inventor Bob Lee on the streets of San Francisco on Thursday.
Momeni was ordered to remain in custody without bond by Judge Victor Hwang because of the strong likelihood that others would suffer serious physical harm if he were released. Momeni, who was dressed in an orange jumpsuit, was silent when his lawyer Paula Canny made the plea on his behalf.
The IT world in San Francisco was devastated by Lee’s passing on April 4. He founded the mobile payment app Cash App and served as MobileCoin’s chief product officer.
Shortly after 2:30 a.m., he was discovered outside an apartment building with three stab wounds, one of which was to the heart. He was then rushed to a hospital, where he eventually passed away.
Momeni, 38, allegedly drove Lee to a remote location and stabbed him following an alleged argument involving Momeni’s sister, Khazar Elyassnia. Alongside Momeni’s mother, she made an appearance in court on Thursday. According to the prosecution, Momeni’s DNA was discovered on the knife’s grip and Lee’s blood was detected on the blade.
The two males had an argument in the car before to the event, Canny acknowledged. She claimed that Momeni’s actions were both an accident and an act of self-defense.
She told reporters outside of court, “People can fight and not know that someone has been fatally wounded.”
Based on surveillance footage and the testimony of a friend who was with Lee the day before he died, Momeni was apprehended last month and charged with murder. A motion to detain Momeni contained specific information.
The motion claimed that the two males had been interacting with Momeni’s sister, Elyassnia, the day before the stabbing. The friend claimed Momeni later questioned Lee about whether his sister had been acting inappropriately, and Lee responded that she had not, according to the friend, who was not named by the prosecution.
After parting ways, Lee entered the Millennium Tower, where Elyassnia lives, just after midnight, as seen on surveillance footage. Then, shortly after two in the morning, video captured Lee and Momeni leaving the premises together and departing in his car.
Momeni allegedly drove to a remote location, where Lee was stabbed with a kitchen knife, in a neighborhood of condos and abandoned tech offices, according to the prosecution. He then accelerated away “and left victim to slowly die,” the motion continued.
