Lawyers for tech consultant Nima Momeni say he had no reason to kill Cash App founder Bob Lee
CTV
Attorneys for Nima Momeni, the tech consultant charged in the death of Cash App founder Bob Lee, said Monday that the two men had a cordial relationship and the defendant had no reason to kill him.
Attorneys for Nima Momeni, the tech consultant charged in the death of Cash App founder Bob Lee, said Monday that the two men had a cordial relationship and the defendant had no reason to kill him.
The comments from Momeni's lawyers came during a preliminary hearing, where the prosecution presents its evidence and a judge decides if there is enough to move ahead to trial. The hearing will continue Tuesday, when Momeni's defence is expected to lay out more of their arguments.
Prosecutors have said that Momeni, 38, planned the April 4 attack that left Lee dying on a desolate San Francisco street. They said he drove Lee to a secluded spot and stabbed him three times after a dispute related to Momeni's sister, Khazar.
But Tony Brass, one of four defence attorneys present Monday, said it was not Lee but another man whom Momeni suspected of acting inappropriately with his younger sister.
"What you see is cordial, a cordial relationship between Nima Momeni and Bob Lee," Brass said to reporters after the hearing. "They're in a car together. Those are not two men who have murderous rage between them."
A friend of Lee told homicide investigators they had been hanging out and drinking with Momeni's sister the day before the stabbing, prosecutors said previously in court documents. The friend said Momeni later questioned Lee about whether his sister was doing drugs or otherwise engaging in inappropriate behaviour, and Lee said she had not.
But Saam Zangeneh, one of Momeni's lawyers, said he asked those questions of Lee in regards to the man whose apartment they had been drinking at.
