The murder trial of Nima Momeni, accused of fatally stabbing Cash App founder Bob Lee, took a dramatic turn during the defense team’s closing arguments on Tuesday. Momeni’s attorneys surprised the courtroom by showing a video they claim depicts Lee using the same knife that was later used to kill him.
The state says Momeni stabbed Lee after a heated argument about Lee’s relationship with Momeni’s sister and their drug use. The incident happened in San Francisco’s East Cut neighborhood early one morning in April 2023.
The video, shown for the first time in court, allegedly shows Lee with a friend outside a club, using cocaine on a knife. Defense attorney Saam Zangeneh insisted this was the same knife involved in the murder and accused prosecutors of hiding the footage. “They buried it,” he said. “I guarantee you they didn’t know we found it.”
Lee’s brother, Timothy, strongly rejected the claim. “Bob never carried a knife, and he definitely never used one for cocaine. It’s absurd,” he said.
To back up their argument, Zangeneh presented a cardboard replica of the knife and pointed to surveillance footage showing Lee holding what the defense says is the same object. This directly challenges the prosecution’s argument that Lee didn’t have the knife on him that night. Prosecutors had shown video evidence suggesting there was no visible weight in Lee’s jacket pocket, implying he wasn’t carrying the knife.
The courtroom grew tense when Zangeneh used a bag of sugar as a prop during his presentation, jokingly saying it wasn’t cocaine. Lee’s ex-wife, Krista, laughed sarcastically, prompting Zangeneh to call her out for being disrespectful. The judge quickly stepped in to calm things down.
Outside the courtroom, Timothy Lee expressed frustration with the defense’s tactics, saying, “They’re not just trying to defend their client—they’re attacking Bob’s character and his legacy, and it’s heartbreaking.”
Momeni’s defense team argued he acted in self-defense and had no reason to kill Lee. Meanwhile, prosecutors urged the jury to use common sense, dismiss the defense’s theory as implausible, and deliver a guilty verdict. They closed with a strong statement: “Do not let him get away with it.”
The jury is set to begin deliberations on Wednesday. If found guilty, Momeni could face 26 years to life in prison.
