Tech executive Nima Momeni was seen exchanging heart symbols with family in court after the 38-year-old was accused of stabbing Cash App founder Bob Lee to death.
Momeni is said to have stabbed Lee in the heart after vowing to ‘come down hard on him’ and grilling him over his relationship with his married sister, with whom the Cash App founder exchanged intimate text messages, prosecutors claimed in court.
He’s charged with murdering Lee on April 4 in San Francisco at around 2.35am after spending around two hours with him in his married sister Khazar’s apartment.
Khazar showed up in court on Friday with her plastic surgeon husband, Dr. Dino Elyassnia, wearing designer sunglasses. She and her brother immigrated to the US from Iran as children.
Tech executive Nima Momeni was seen exchanging heart symbols with family in court after the 38-year-old was accused of stabbing Cash App founder Bob Lee to death
Momeni (left) vowed ‘came down way hard’ on Lee hours before the stabbing. Prosecutors say it was a planned attack in which he used a kitchen knife to stab Lee in the heart
Momeni appeared before Judge Christine Van Aken, accused of the stabbing murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee
Prosecutors shared new facts about the case in an effort to keep Momeni behind bars.
In a motion filed in court, they revealed a text from Khazar, to Lee in which she gushed over what a ‘classy guy’ he was.
Hours before his murder, Nima had grilled Lee about his relationship with Khazar, who is married to a prominent local plastic surgeon, demanding to know whether she’d been ‘doing drugs’ or anything ‘inappropriate’ while spending time with him.
He’d had a drink with her and one of Lee’s friends earlier that day.
At 12.39am, Lee was seen entering Khazar’s apartment building. Nima was already inside.
Khazar and her husband, plastic surgeon Dr. Dino Elyassnia Friday at her brother’s arraignment. Prosecutors laid out part of their case on Friday and she is at the center of her brother’s alleged motive
In a text message to Lee earlier in the day, Khazar gushed: ‘Just wanted to make sure your doing OK because I know Nima came wayyy down hard on you and thank you for being such a classy man handling it with class. ‘Love you Selfish pr***s’
At 2.03am, Lee and Nima left the apartment building and got into Nima’s BMW, who’d offered to drive him to his hotel.
Instead, prosecutors say he took him to a shady downtown street, where he stabbed him three times including once in the heart, and fled.
An unnamed witness who said he’d been friends with Bob for 10 years told police that he believed Lee and Khazar were having an intimate relationship and that her marriage might have been in ‘jeopardy.’
Both he and Khazar lived in Mill Valley, an exclusive San Francisco suburb, before Lee moved to Miami in October last year.
In a text message to Lee earlier in the day, she gushed: ‘Just wanted to make sure your doing OK because I know Nima came wayyy down hard on you and thank you for being such a classy man handling it with class.
‘Love you Selfish pr***s.’
Momeni depicted in a court sketch Friday. His sister was in the courtroom to support him. The pair immigrated to the US from Iran as children
Lee is said to have met Momeni through his sister Khazar, who he also met recently, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. She is shown with her husband, a prominent local plastic surgeon
She was seen at court Friday for her brother’s arraignment, accompanied by her husband.
Lee had also had drinks with Khazar at 3.30pm the day before he died. The friend was also with them. Lee invited Khazar to go to his hotel room but she said no.
Once in the hotel room, Nima called Lee on Facetime. It was about him picking Khazar up from the house where they had been earlier.
‘[Nima] was questioning [Lee] about whether his sister was doing drugs or anything inappropriate… [Lee] had to reassure him nothing inappropriate had happened,’ court documents reveal.
They then went to the friend’s apartment where they continued to ‘hang out’ until 12.30am.
Lee was seen entering Khazar’s apartment at 12.39am. Nima had been there since 8.31pm. Surveillance footage showed them leaving together at 2.03am, 30 minutes before the stabbing.
Neither Khazar nor her husband has commented on her brother’s arrest
Nima Momeni’s loft, where neighbors say he both worked and lived. It was raided on Thursday morning
On April 4, Lee was filmed on surveillance cameras staggering into an apartment building in downtown San Francisco at 2.35am after being stabbed. Yesterday, police searched the nearby apartment of Momeni’s sister, Khazar. It’s unclear if they’d been together or at the apartment earlier in the night
The day after the murder, the friend called Khazar and asked whether Lee had gone round to her apartment. She said he had ‘for a second’ but that she ‘fell asleep’ and didn’t know when he left, according to the documents.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has charged Momeni with murder, alongside a further charge of special enhancement for using a knife.
In the motion filed Friday, her office said it was a pre-meditated attack carried out by the angry brother.
Surveillance footage is also said to have captured the stabbing in Momeni’s BMW.
He sped away afterwards, throwing his knife into the street, and leaving Lee to stagger through the San Francisco streets in a desperate, final attempt to cling to life.
He was taken to the hospital but died of his injuries.
Lee’s family have vowed to work with prosecutors to bring Momeni to ‘justice’.
They thanked police for making an arrest in a joint statement issued last night.
San Francisco officials have also gloated about the fact the killing was not random or a symptom of the city’s spiraling crime problem, as many had assumed it was.
Momeni was denied bail and will remain in custody until his next court date.
The 38-year-old lived alone in this building. He is due to appear in court later this afternoon
Police searched her property in addition to the loft where Momeni was arrested yesterday.
Neighbors told DailyMail.com he is ‘warm and welcoming’ and that they were stunned by his arrest.
Questions however have arisen about his background.
Online, he claims to be a graduate of UC Berkeley, but the school says it has no record of him ever attending classes.