The fate of Nima Momeni, charged with the high-profile murder of Bob Lee, co-founder of CashApp, will rest in the hands of a San Francisco jury. Despite efforts by the defense to relocate proceedings, Superior Court Judge Eric Fleming ruled Friday that the trial will not budge from the Bay Area, setting a tentative start date of May 20, as per a report by SFist.
Defense lawyers have raised concerns that Momeni, who pleaded not guilty to the murder charges, couldn’t get an impartial trial due to an allegedly tainted jury pool from extensive media coverage. Their recent survey of 100 San Franciscans found that while 86% were aware of the Lee case, only 27% had formed a notion of Momeni's potential guilt, according to details obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. Judge Fleming, however, found the survey unpersuasive, suggesting the court's faith in the fading grasp of memory over time.
The lurid drama behind the April 2023 murder captures a narrative that is as much about the city itself as the tech titan whose life ended on its streets. Momeni's defense scored a win last week when Fleming granted access to seven years of Lee's cell phone records, shining light on a relationship Lee had with Momeni's sister, Khazar, which could be central to the case's motive. "The prosecution is going to do a seven year pull on both of Bob Lee’s phones, because that’s when Bob Lee met Khazar Momeni—and the government is alleging that that relationship had merit,” defense attorney Saam Zangeneh told SFist.
While the defense has painted Momeni as an "outsider" due to his Iranian immigrant background, Lee has been memorialized in media narratives as a local tech icon—an imbalance challenged by Zangeneh. Yet, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins countered that the media's impact is overstated, suggesting any bias concerns could be mitigated during jury selection. Momeni's image hasn't been helped by jail cell photos published last year, which his attorneys argue could prejudice jurors. Nevertheless, only 13% of surveyed locals recalled seeing these images, the Chronicle reported.
Lee was found stabbed and surveillance footage showed Lee and Nima Momeni leaving Khazar's condo shortly before the tragedy. A knife from Khazar Momeni’s kitchen is thought to be the murder weapon. As the community watches and awaits the trial's commencement in May, it seems the shadows of Silicon Valley, and of fractured human relations, will continue to loom large over the heart of San Francisco.
