The jury hears Bob Lee’s last words on the 911 tape

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – In opening statements in Bob Lee’s murder trial Monday, prosecutors called the suspect, Nima Momeni, a “wannabe badass big brother” and portrayed him as a knife-wielding killer.

Momeni is accused of killing Lee on April 4, 2023, under the Bay Bridge in San Francisco.

Lee was an executive for cryptocurrency company MobileCoin and the founder of Cash App. He spent his last day partying with Momeni’s younger sister, Khazar, hanging out in hotel rooms and drinking at a private club known as The Battery, lawyers said.

Momeni, 40, was convinced something “inappropriate” had happened between his sister and the tech mogul, prosecutors told the jury.

On the afternoon of April 3, 2023, Lee left Khazar at a drug dealer’s apartment and returned to his hotel room with a friend to talk about new tech ideas, Assistant District Attorney Omid Talai said. Around 9 p.m., Momeni called Lee to question him, Talai said, and the call was “aggressive, awkward and (and) strange.”

Momeni wanted to know from Lee: ‘What happened to my sister there? What inappropriate things were going on? What about the girls who get naked?” Talai said.

Talai told the jury: ‘It is clear from this call that the defendant is an overprotective, tough guy wannabe who wants answers. Bob is Bob…and tries to calm the defendant down.”

Evidence presented at trial will show that Momeni’s motive for killing Lee was “obvious” and centers on Khazar, the prosecutor said.

Talai began his opening statements by telling the jury, “Stabbed in the heart and left to die. Robert Lee, better known as Bob, a only 43-year-old man, was driven to a dark, secluded area after 2 a.m. and violently stabbed. He immediately started bleeding profusely and began breathing his last breaths. Ladies and gentlemen, you are in court with a murderer. A coward who stabbed an unarmed man three times.”

Before Khazar found out Lee was dead, she sent an invaluable text message on April 4, 2023, Talai said. Her text to Lee was shown on screen for judges. It said, “I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. Because I know Nima came at you really hard. And thank you for being such a stylish man who handles it with class.”

“These were text messages six hours after the murder,” Talai told the jury.

Surveillance cameras at Khazar’s Millennium Tower apartment complex recorded Lee and Momeni leaving together at 2 a.m. on April 4, 2023. Momeni secretly took a knife from his sister’s kitchen and hid it under his clothes, prosecutors said.

‘The night seems to be over. But the defendant does not take Bob home (to 1 Hotel). He’s taking him here to the 400 block of Main Street. Bob dies about a block away,” Talai said.

The prosecutor admitted to jurors that the only surveillance video showing the actual stabbing is extremely grainy. Two figures in the video are too grainy to identify.

As Lee staggered away from the murder scene, he left a trail of blood behind him.

“Just like that trail of blood found all the way down the street, (SFPD Detective Brent Dittmer) begins following a huge trail of evidence left behind by our coward of a defendant. What do the police think on the other side of that CalTrans fence? The murder weapon… a kitchen knife. There is blood on the knife,” Talai told jurors.

Hours after the murder, Momeni sent a text message to his sister in which he spoke of ‘rape’. Khazar responded in text messages that she had not been raped by Lee. She wrote: ‘Blow (cocaine) has messed up your mind. It drives you crazy.”

Attorney Saam Zangeneh’s opening statement portrayed Lee as a man who went on a drug bender through San Francisco for 90 hours as he and his friends jumped from private parties, to bars, to nightclubs and to hotel rooms.

‘His phone records, his text messages and witness testimonies show that he is awake from 8am on Friday morning to 2.30am on Tuesday morning. It’s not because he’s sleepless. That’s because this period was fueled by substance abuse, drugs and especially cocaine,” Zangeneh told jurors.

Zangeneh said Momeni had “no motive” to kill Lee, and that the prosecutor’s case “will fall apart” once jurors hear all the evidence. The high-profile trial will stretch over three months, the judge said.

Zangeneh claimed that Lee invited Momeni to go to the Gold Club, a strip club, on the night of April 3. ‘Does that sound like bad blood? Does that fit the story (of the prosecutors)? This motive that they are trying to tell you does not exist,” the lawyer said.

Zangeneh dropped a bombshell during his opening speech on why Lee and Momeni left Khazar’s Millennium Tower apartment together. “Khazar kicks them out in a surreptitious manner. She texted both boys: “I’m tired and I want to go to sleep.”

Khazar wanted to get rid of Lee and her brother because her alleged drug dealer, Jeremy Boivin, was passing by, the lawyer said.

“She wanted to keep partying and she wanted the guy who had all the drugs. Jeremy told (police) that he stayed there for days. Khazar has a husband. The man encountered Jeremy while he was in bed with Khazar,” Zangeneh told jurors.

After Lee and Momeni left Khazar’s apartment, they drove Momeni’s BMW to a street under the Bay Bridge. “Around 2:30 a.m., after a 90-hour drug-fueled bender, Bob Lee pulled a knife from his pocket … to attack Nima,” Zangeneh said.

Cocaine caused Lee to become paranoid, aggressive and violent, the attorney told jurors. Momeni had a defensive stab wound to his hip, he added. Zangeneh said that after Lee pulled the knife and stabbed it at Momeni, Momeni fought for his life.

Zangeneh concluded his opening remarks by saying: “Nima Momeni was forced to defend herself, forced to stand her ground. Once we fill in the gaps, the only viable verdict in this case is: not guilty. It’s terrible that someone is dead, no one likes that, but you have the right to defend yourself. You have the right to self-defense.”

Defense attorneys fought to have Lee’s ex-wife banned from the courtroom for the trial by accusing her of intimidating witnesses. The ex-wife reportedly calls Khazar “the whore from the high tower,” according to a motion filed with the court.

As soon as Judge Alexandra Gordon denied the defense team’s motion Monday morning, Lee’s ex-wife entered the courtroom, flanked by 10 more family members dressed in black. Lee’s family sat in the front row of the courtroom.

Before calling their first witness, prosecutors made a heartbreaking 911 call in which Lee’s last words were recorded.

“Help, help, help, help, help,” Lee pleads to an emergency responder. The dispatcher responded, “Sir, where are you?” Lee says, “Someone stabbed me. Please help me.”

Lee was recorded by surveillance cameras during the 911 call. He lifted his shirt and saw the blood pouring from his torso. “Please help me. I’m on the street. I need to go to the hospital,” Lee told the dispatcher.

On the tape, Lee begins to groan in agonizing pain. His voice begins to disappear and grow weaker as he pleads, “Help, help, help. Please, please.” Sirens can be heard in the background of the tape just before the 911 call ends.

Lee’s two teenage children listened to opening statements but remained outside the courtroom as the tape was played. Lee’s father held his hands over his face as he listened to his son’s death.

Prosecutors called San Francisco Police Department officer Joseph Rinaldi as the first witness. “There was an adult male lying on the ground in front of 403 Main Street. He was bleeding,” Rinaldi testified. The jury was shown photos of officers standing around Lee as he lay unconscious on the pavement in a pool of blood.

Khazar will testify on the witness stand on Tuesday, according to lawyers.

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