Tech consultant goes on trial in death of Cash App founder Bob Lee

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The tech consultant charged in Cash App founder Bob Lee's stabbing death had no motive to kill him and in fact was forced to defend himself against Lee, who had become aggressive while on a multiday drug bender, lawyers for Nima Momeni said in opening statements Monday.

Prosecutors say Momeni, 40, planned the April 4, 2023, attack after a dispute over his younger sister, Khazar, with whom Lee was friends. They say Momeni took a knife from a unique set in his sister’s condo, drove Lee to a secluded area and stabbed him three times, then fled.

“Stabbed through his heart and left to die,” said Omid Talai, assistant district attorney, “our victim was stabbed repeatedly, once in his chest, once in his hip and literally one puncturing his heart.”

Lee’s death at age 43 — after staggering on a deserted downtown San Francisco street seeking help — stunned the tech community, and fellow executives and engineers penned tributes to the charismatic entrepreneur's generosity and brilliance. Lee was chief product officer of cryptocurrency platform MobileCoin when he died. He was a father to two children.

Judge Alexandra Gordon has told jurors the long-awaited trial that began Monday in San Francisco Superior Court is expected to last two months. Momeni, who lives in nearby Emeryville, California, has been in custody since his arrest days after Lee died at a San Francisco hospital.

Momeni has pleaded not guilty. He faces 26 years to life in prison if convicted.

Lawyer Saam Zangeneh told jurors that defense attorneys will show that Momeni bore Lee no ill will and that wound patterns show that Momeni was forced to defend himself after Lee pulled a knife out of his pocket, high on drugs and having slept only six hours over a four-day period of doing cocaine and drinking.

“We feel that once we present this case ... and once we fill in the gaps, the only viable verdict in this case is a verdict of not guilty,” Zangeneh said. “Somebody’s dead. Nobody likes that, but you have the right to defend yourself.”

Momeni, seen at previous court hearings in orange jail clothing, was seated Monday with his lawyers, wearing a dark suit. His mother, who has been a steadfast presence at hearings, was in the courtroom.

On the other side of the courtroom sat members of Lee’s family, including his ex-wife, father and brother. Lee's brother put an arm around his father when the 911 call Lee made was replayed in court.

In it, Lee is heard repeatedly asking for help, unable to answer the dispatcher's questions about where he was and what his name was. He said he had been stabbed.

Talai, the assistant district attorney, said jurors will hear from a friend of Lee’s, who was with him and Momeni’s sister the day before Lee was stabbed.

The friend will testify that Momeni angrily grilled Lee on the phone that night over his sister, drugs and “girls getting naked,” acting like “an overprotective, wannabe tough guy” while Lee was being mellow and happy, Talai said.

Zangeneh said he will show that the friend is not a reliable witness and that Momeni and Lee had traded friendly texts that night. Lee likely invited Momeni to join him at a strip club, Zangeneh said.

Surveillance video of Lee’s final night shows him entering the posh Millennium Tower downtown, where Momeni’s sister lives with her husband, a prominent San Francisco plastic surgeon.

Video shows Lee and Momeni leaving the building after 2 a.m. and driving off together in Momeni’s car.

Other video will show the two men getting out of the car in a isolated spot by the Bay Bridge, and then Momeni stabbing Lee three times, tossing the knife from his sister’s kitchen set and quickly driving away, Talai said.

Talai said the prosecution will share text messages in which Momeni, the following morning, tells his sister he did not know what happened to Lee that night but that he was preparing a rape case against him, thinking Lee had assaulted Khazar.

The attorney said video recorded by a San Francisco police detective trailing Momeni before his arrest shows him reenacting the three stabbing motions outside his previous lawyer’s office, but no reenactment of a struggle over the knife that Momeni's attorneys say Lee wielded first.

Police recovered a knife with a 4-inch (10-centimeter) blade in the secluded area where Lee was stabbed. Prosecutors said tests showed Momeni’s DNA on the weapon’s handle and Lee’s DNA on the bloody blade.

Zangeneh said Monday that police should have tested the handle for fingerprints, namely Lee’s. He scoffed at the idea of Momeni bringing what was essentially a "paring” knife from his sister's kitchen to kill Lee, and said that Momeni did not realize Lee was hurt, much less fatally wounded.

He said his client is eager to tell his side of the story, but they haven’t decided whether Momeni will testify in his defense.

Family members for Momeni and Lee declined to comment Monday.

Attorney Saam Zangeneh walks past members of the media in the hallway outside Department 28 at the Hall of Justice on the first day of the trial of Nima Momeni, on the first day of the trial of Nima Momeni, a tech consultant charged in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in San Francisco. Momeni has pleaded not guilty. (Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Attorney Tony Brass leaves Department 28 at the Hall of Justice on the first day of the trial of Nima Momeni, a tech consultant charged in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in San Francisco. (Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Tim Oliver Lee, right, brother of Cash App founder Bob Lee; Rick Lee, center, father of Bob Lee, Krista Lee, and other family members leave Department 28 at the Hall of Justice on the first day of the murder trial of Nima Momeni, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in San Francisco,. (Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Tim Oliver Lee, left, brother of Cash App founder Bob Lee, Rick Lee, second left, father of Bob Lee; Krista Lee, fourth left, ex-wife of Bob Lee, and other family members of Bob Lee walk to Department 28 to enter the courtroom at the Hall of Justice on the first day of the murder trial of Nima Momeni, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024 in San Francisco. (Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

FILE - Flowers sit at a tree in front of the building where a technology executive was fatally stabbed outside of in San Francisco, April 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

FILE - Nima Momeni, the man charged in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee, makes his way into the courtroom for his arraignment in San Francisco, May 2, 2023. (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool, File)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rocket fired from Yemen hit an area of Tel Aviv overnight, leaving 16 people slightly injured by shattered glass, the Israeli military said Saturday, days after Israeli airstrikes hit Houthi rebels who have been launching missiles in solidarity with Palestinians.

A further 14 people sustained minor injuries as they rushed to shelters when air raid sirens sounded before the projectile hit just before 4 a.m. Saturday, the military said.

The Houthi rebels issued a statement on the Telegram messaging app saying they had aimed a hypersonic ballistic missile at a military target, which they did not identify.

The attack comes less than two days after a series of Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebel-held capital, Sanaa, and port city of Hodeida killed at least nine people. The Israeli strikes were in response to a Houthi attack in which a long-range missile hit an Israeli school building. The Houthis also claimed a drone strike targeting an unspecified military target in central Israel on Thursday.

The Israeli military says the Iran-backed Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and drones during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The Houthis have also been attacking shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and say they won’t stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli strikes Thursday caused “considerable damage” to the Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports “that will lead to the immediate and significant reduction in port capacity,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The port at Hodeida has been key for food shipments into Yemen in its decade-long civil war.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said both sides’ attacks risk further escalation in the region and undermine U.N. mediation efforts.

In the Gaza Strip on Saturday, mourners held the funerals of 19 people — 12 of them children — killed in Israeli strikes on Friday and overnight.

One of the strikes hit a residential building in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least seven Palestinians, including five children and one woman, and injuring 16 others, health officials said.

In Gaza City, another strike on a house overnight killed 12 people, including seven children and two women, according to Al-Ahli Hospital where the bodies were taken.

Mourners gathered at the hospital in Gaza City Saturday morning. Women comforted each other as they wept over the bodies before they were carried away. One man, stony-faced, cradled a tiny shroud-wrapped body in his arms as he carried it along the funeral procession.

In Al-Aqsa Hospital of Deir al Balah, white body bags containing those killed in Nuseirat were taken from the morgue and loaded onto the back of an open truck to be taken for burial.

Overall, Gaza's Health Ministry said Saturday that 21 people had been killed and 61 were wounded over the past 24 hours.

Israel faces heavy international criticism over the unprecedented levels of civilian casualties in Gaza and questions about whether it has done enough to prevent them.

Israel says it only strikes militants, and blames the Hamas militant group for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in residential areas.

More than 45,200 people have been killed and more than 107,500 wounded in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, when a Hamas attack in Israel killed about 1,200 people and triggered the devastating 14-month war in Gaza. Local health officials do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but have said more than half of the fatalities are women and children.

The Israeli military organization dealing with humanitarian affairs for Gaza said Saturday it had led a “tactical coordinated operation” delivering thousands of food packages, flour and water to the Beit Hanoun area in the north of the Gaza Strip.

The organization, known by its acronym COGAT, said trucks from the U.N. World Food Program transported 2,000 food packages, 1,680 sacks of flour and thousands of liters of water to distribution centers in the area on Friday.

Aid groups have said previously that military operations and armed gangs have hindered their ability to distribute aid to civilians in need.

Gaza's Health Ministry issued an urgent appeal Saturday for medical and food supplies to be delivered to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, near Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, while the hospital director described dire conditions.

The ministry said in a statement that there was continuous gunfire and Israeli shelling near the hospital. “Shells have struck the third floor and the hospital’s entrances, creating a state of panic,” the ministry said.

Hospital Director Dr. Husam Abu Safiyeh said the facility was “facing severe shortages."

“Despite promises, we have not received the necessary supplies to maintain electricity, water, and oxygen systems," Abu Safiyeh said. "Our requests for essential medical supplies and staff have largely gone unmet.”

He said the World Health Organization had delivered 70 units of blood, but that the hospital requires at least 200 units to meet urgent needs. He said 72 wounded people were being treated at the hospital.

The shortages extend beyond medical necessities. “Food is very scarce, and we cannot provide meals for the wounded. We are urgently calling on anyone who can provide supplies to help us,” he said. “The staff is working around the clock, yet we cannot even provide meals for them.”

Shurafa reported from Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Majdal Shams, Golan Heights, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Bodies of victims of an Israeli airstrike at the Nuseirat refugee camp are prepared for the funeral prayer outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Men pray over the bodies of victims of an Israeli airstrike at the Nuseirat refugee camp during a funeral prayer outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Bodies of victims of an Israeli airstrike at the Nuseirat arrive at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital before their funeral in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

An Israeli soldier observes the site where the missile launched from Yemen landed Jaffa district, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Tomer Appelbaum)