A San Francisco jury has discovered Nima Momeni responsible of second-degree homicide within the stabbing of Bob Lee, the Money App creator and former CTO of Block, in response to NBC Bay Space on Tuesday. The jury discovered Momeni not responsible of first-degree homicide, that means jurors determined the homicide of Lee was not premeditated.
Lee was fatally stabbed on the streets of downtown San Francisco in April 2023. In the course of the trial, prosecutors painted a dramatic image of Lee’s two-day drug binge with Khazar Momeni, the sister of his assassin, which preceded his dying. Prosecutors alleged that Lee’s good friend and drug seller had sexually assaulted Khazar through the escapade, resulting in a heated change during which Nima in the end stabbed Lee with a kitchen knife from his sister’s dwelling.
Nevertheless, the protection informed a unique story. Nima Momeni informed the jury he was out on a stroll with Lee beneath the Bay Bridge on the night time of the stabbing, attempting to persuade Lee to spend extra time at dwelling together with his household as a substitute of out partying. The protection alleged that Lee turned pissed off and attacked Momeni with a knife throughout that dialog, main Momeni to retaliate in self-defense and seize the weapon from Lee. Momeni informed jurors he had no animosity towards Lee.
Nevertheless, video proof of the occasion indicated that Momeni was the aggressor, and forensic testing discovered Momeni’s DNA on the knife’s deal with.
The punishment for first-degree homicide is usually harsher than the punishment for second-degree homicide, however each usually include prolonged jail sentences. Momeni is going through 16 years to life in jail, with sentencing to come back at a later date.
Lee was 43 and the chief product officer on the cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin on the time of his dying. Previous to that, he led expertise growth at Jack Dorsey’s Block, the place he created the cell fee service Money App, and was additionally an investor in SpaceX, Clubhouse, Tile, and Figma. In his early 20s, he helped develop the Android working system at Google.
On the time of Lee’s dying, his colleagues and friends praised his contributions to the expertise world. The CEO of Figma, Dylan Area, famous how Lee first met with him when he was 14 and was an early supporter of Figma. Dorsey stated Lee was instrumental to creating Sq., which then turned Block.
Initially after Lee’s homicide, many speculated that the tech government’s dying was random and associated to San Francisco’s homelessness and crime downside. The truth is, it turned out that Lee knew the killer.
