Jury deliberations in Nima Momeni trial for Bob Lee's murder resume on day two
Jurors in San Francisco on Thursday began their second day of deliberations in the murder trial of Nima Momeni, the man accused in the 2023 fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee.
The jury resumed deliberations at 9:30 a.m. Thursday morning, a day after first receiving the case following some final instructions from the judge presiding over the trial.
Momeni has been charged with first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of 26-years-to-life in prison. Jurors are also considering second-degree murder and manslaughter in the case.
The judge told jurors whatever verdict they come must be unanimous.
The state has accused Momeni of fatally stabbing tech executive Lee in a remote part of San Francisco's East Cut neighborhood on an early morning in April 2023.
Jurors are considering 21 days of sometimes contentious testimony and thousands of pieces of evidence as they weigh the fate of Nima Momeni.
The start of deliberations came a day after attorneys for Momeni wrapped up their closing argument with a surprise video clip they claimed showed Lee doing cocaine outside a private club with the same knife used to kill him hours later.
On Wednesday morning, Lee's ex-wife Krista pushed back on those claims, posing an alternative answer to what her ex-husband may have had in his hand outside the Battery.
"It wasn't a knife he was holding. It was a metal collar stay. It's something Bob's used for years. It's about yay long," Lee said, holding her thumb and forefinger about four or five inches apart. "And I should only hope that in the evidence it will come up."
The possibility that the item in Bob Lee's hand could be a collar stay is unlikely to come up in jury deliberation as it was never mentioned inside the courtroom.
When pressed on why they only brought up their theory that Lee could be seen in video with the knife hours earlier at the tail end of the trial, defense attorneys said it's all part of their strategy.
"That's a huge moment in the case, because it shows he actually had possession of what everyone in that room knows is a knife," said defense attorney Bradford Cohen.
"There was no collar pin found at the scene. She's making up evidence. Because if it was the collar pin, they would have found the collar pin on him," added defense attorney Saam Zangeneh.
