A new legal team representing the man accused in the murder of tech executive Bob Lee appeared in court for the first time Tuesday.
The hearing for Nima Momeni took a few minutes and his legal team spoke to reporters after.
"Whatever happened in the past is in the past," said Saam Zangeneh, Momeni's new lawyer. "We are fresh eyes, fresh perspectives. And that's what we're going to do. We're not basing anything that happened in the past."
At one point during the post-hearing news conference, Zangeneh chafed at repeated questions about how his client's prior attorney handled the case.
Zangeneh and Momeni made it clear they are completely parting from lawyer Paula Canny. Zangeneh said he will not even be asking Canny to turn over the case file and instead will get it from the district attorney's office.
Zangeneh said he also plans to revisit Momeni being held in jail until trial, adding he will make that motion at some point during the next hearing.
In May, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office successfully argued that Momeni was a danger to the public and should not be allowed bail.
Legal experts said Momeni's new lawyers have their work cut out for them considering the evidence the DA said they have proving their client violently and repeatedly stabbed Lee and left the Cash App founder to die.
While Momeni now has a new team of lawyers, Tony Brass is the only one that is Bay Area-based, which he said is significant in San Francisco's relatively small legal community.
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"It is unusual and I think that if there's any sort of deficit in that, it's made up for by the fact that they have local counsel here," Brass said.
The District Attorney's Office did not provide a comment to NBC Bay Area on Tuesday.
The murder case against Momeni will continue with a two-day preliminary hearing starting July 31.
