The jury in the Nima Momeni trial wrapped up its fifth day of deliberations Wednesday without a verdict. Sergio Quintana reports.
The jury in the Nima Momeni trial wrapped up its fifth day of deliberations Wednesday without a verdict.
Momeni is charged with killing Cash App co-founder Bob Lee and a jury will continue to deliberate his legal fate in the high-profile murder trial on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Momeni's defense team filed a motion for a mistrial alleging prosecutorial misconduct and false testimony from a witness for the prosecution.
According to the defense team, they argued their motions before the judge on Tuesday. The judge dismissed that motion.
At the end of the fifth day of deliberations, Momeni's lead attorney said he knows the jury is asking questions of the judge, but could not say if that means anything about a verdict.
"I've tried my fair share of cases and this is one of the longer deliberations that I've dealt with personally," Momeni's defense attorney Saam Zangeneh said. "But, that doesn't mean anything. You know, who knows what that means?
Sometimes you get a decision in 10 minutes, and sometimes it takes much longer."
Thursday is also when the jury will get to its so-called hardship point. That is when the judge will have to begin figuring out how to schedule out the coming holiday weeks if the jury has not reached a verdict.
Next week will mark just four more deliberation days before the week of Christmas, so the judge will have to try to coordinate possible planned travel dates and potential availability of alternate jurors if necessary.
Momeni is charged with first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Lee on April 4, 2023, in San Francisco. That's the highest charge the jury must consider, and they must come to a consensus of guilty or not guilty.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. >Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
If the jurors are unanimous on not guilty, they will then consider lighter charges of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter in that order.
Prosecutors argued that Momeni attacked and killed Lee in a drug-fueled rage after learning his sister’s allegations of a sexual assault against a man that Lee knew. Defense attorneys say it was Lee who lunged at Momeni with the knife, and Momeni acted in self-defense.
