After seven days of deliberations, a San Francisco jury on Tuesday found Nima Momeni guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee last year.
The verdict means the 12 jurors were unanimous on not-guilty of first-degree murder.
With the second-degree murder conviction, Momeni now faces 16 years to life in prison, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins confirmed Tuesday. A sentencing date had not been established as of Tuesday morning.
Lee’s violent death in San Francisco on April 4, 2023, shocked the tech community as fellow executives and engineers praised his generosity, curiosity and leadership skills. He was 43 and chief product officer of cryptocurrency platform MobileCoin when he died.
The jury began deliberations on Wednesday, Dec. 4, after two days of closing arguments. One of the jurors a day before fell sick and was replaced.
The jury notified the court at 3:50 p.m. Monday, Dec. 16 that it had reached a verdict, but given the time of day, the jurors were ordered to return to court at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 17 for the reading of the verdict.
Jurors were instructed to consider a single count of first-degree murder with an enhancement of using a deadly weapon. If they cannot reach a unanimous verdict on that charge, they can consider lesser charges of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter.
Here's a look at what we know about the murder case.
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Who is Nima Momeni, suspect in Bob Lee's killing?
On his LinkedIn profile, Momeni describes himself as an “IT Consultant/Entrepreneur” as well as the owner of a company called Expand IT. Business filings with the state list Momeni as the chief executive officer, secretary and chief financial officer of Expand IT INC, described as an information technology consulting business. He signed the filing in August 2022.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Momeni has been “a dedicated technology partner since 2005” and that he started Expand IT in 2010.
Criminal records show Momeni, who is a resident of Emeryville, was charged with carrying a switchblade in 2011, a misdemeanor offense. The case was dismissed the following year after he took a plea.
Momeni has been charged with murder, with an allegation that he used a deadly weapon, in the Lee killing. He has plead not guilty.
Court documents reveal timeline of events leading up to killing of Bob Lee
Lee was stabbed to death after an argument about the suspect's sister, according to court documents, which also reveal a timeline of events leading up to the slaying.
Police dispatch audio reveals moments after Bob Lee was stabbed
Police dispatch audio reveals what happened in the minutes after Lee was stabbed. In police scanner audio posted online, a dispatcher can be heard relaying information about the stabbing to responding units. View it below.
Security camera video shows moments after Bob Lee was stabbed
In surveillance video obtained by DailyMail.com, Lee is seen collapsing after being stabbed. He's able to get up and try to flag down a car for help, but the driver did not stop and Lee's attempts to ring a doorbell and call for help didn't work either.
Other images from the night of Lee's death show Lee and Momeni together and apart at different times and places in the city.
The images show Lee arriving at the Millennium Tower at 12:39 a.m. on April 4. He walks into the building and into the lobby. Momeni's sister, Khazar, has a home in the tower.
About an hour and 20 minutes later, Lee is in an elevator in the tower with Nima Momeni. They walk through the tower garage and both of them get into a white BMW convertible.
A photo from near the scene where police believe Lee was stabbed shows him walking up Main Street toward Harrison Street.
According to investigators, Lee called 911 just before 2:35 a.m. The final photo shows a white car, which according to that 911 call, Lee might have tried to flag down.
According to Lee's toxicology screen, several drugs were present in his system at the time of his death.
Tech executive Bob Lee was 'made for the new world'
Prior to his death, Lee was serving as chief product officer of MobileCoin.
The cryptocurrency platform's CEO, Josh Goldbard, said Lee "was made for the new world."
“From large contributions to Android at Google, to being the first CTO of Square, in that time creating Cash App, and working with us here at Mobilecoin, Bob surely had an impact that will last far beyond his short time on earth,” Goldbard said.
Lee came to MobileCoin as an early stage investor and advisor, then became chief product officer and helped launch the Moby app, Goldbard said. Lee was the chief technology officer at digital payments company Square in 2013 when it launched a money transfer application now known as Cash App.
Among the tech leaders to share their devastation about Lee’s death was venture capitalist Wesley Chan, co-founder of FPV Ventures. Chan said he befriended Lee more than a decade ago when they both worked at Google, at a time when software engineers like Lee were helping to build the Android smartphone operating system before its 2008 release.
“He was an incredibly iconic founder in the tech world,” Chan said by phone Wednesday. “He wrote large parts of Android when he was at Google. He became the CTO of Square and helped build Cash App. His resume reads something like a Fortune cover article.”
But Chan said Lee was also generous in helping to coach and champion other engineers and tech entrepreneurs who’d call on him for advice. And he was modest about his key role in developing successful products, such as the widely used Cash App.
“With everything that Bob worked on, it was always a pleasant surprise,” Chan said. “That’s one of the things I loved about him. He was always humble about it, he’d say, ‘Oh, I don’t know if it’s going to work or not, but we’ll try.’”
Prominent venture capitalist Ron Conway, founder of the San Francisco-based investment firm SV Angel, tweeted Wednesday that Lee’s loss was an immense tragedy.
“Deepest condolences to Bob’s family and to the entire tech community,” Conway said. “Remembering fondly when Bob gave an inspiring talk at our CEO Summit. We’ve lost a great innovator, intelligence, and spirit. Praying a suspect is apprehended swiftly.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
