Suspect in killing of tech executive Bob Lee is ordered by judge to stand trial
SAN FRANCISCO — The man accused of killing technology executive Bob Lee must go to trial on a murder charge, a San Francisco judge ruled.
The decision by Superior Court Judge Harry Dorfman, after a two-day hearing, was never really in doubt. Prosecutors only needed to show it was likely Nima Momeni killed Lee, and DNA at the scene tied to Momeni was enough to persuade the judge.
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“The evidence as I see it is very strong,” Dorfman said. He said he was not persuaded by arguments made by Momeni’s lawyers that someone who killed Lee with a knife wouldn’t have left it so close to the scene of the crime. The DNA “tied these people together at that moment,” the judge said.
Lee was the chief product officer at MobileCoin, who died shortly after he was stabbed three times in the early morning hours of April 4 on a quiet street in downtown San Francisco. The preliminary hearing offered numerous details about Lee’s movement the day and night before he died.
The judge heard from police officers, a medical examiner and a DNA analyst who testified in support of prosecutors’ argument that Momeni should go to trial for Lee’s murder. Prosecutors showed video footage of Lee and Momeni leaving the apartment of Momeni’s sister, Khazar Momeni, and the two men driving off together in the moments before Lee was killed.
A much discussed piece of evidence was a kitchen knife found near the victim that prosecutors say had Lee’s blood on it and DNA evidence on the handle that was traced to Nima Momeni.
It’s no coincidence that the brand of the knife used to kill Lee matches those in Khazar Momeni’s apartment, Assistant District Attorney Omid Talai said in closing arguments Tuesday.
Momeni is “not charged with being a smart murderer,” Talai told the judge. “His incompetence is not evidence of his innocence.” “A lot of the smart ones don’t get caught,” Talai added.
Talai pointed to video evidence, described for the first time, of what he said is Momeni throwing an object in the direction where the knife was recovered before driving erratically from the scene.
Momeni’s lawyer Saam Zangeneh offered to concede othat the DA had met the threshold to bring the case to trial on a manslaughter charge, but not murder.
The evidence looks like “a sudden quarrel in the heat of passion,” Zangeneh said. The judge didn’t accept the argument.
Momeni’s lawyers had previously conceded that he’d likely face trial. Their main objective, they said, was to collect information to win Momeni’s exoneration down the road. They also wanted to change the media narrative, which they said was driven by prosecutors’ allegations.
