SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Closing arguments began on Monday in the trial of a tech consultant in the 2023 stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee in San Francisco, an event that shocked the broader tech community whose members mourned the loss of an entrepreneur they called charismatic and kind.
San Francisco prosecutors say Nima Momeni stabbed Lee three times after hearing that Lee’s drug dealer friend plied Momeni’s younger sister with GHB and other drugs and sexually assaulted her.
“One person called 911 pleading for help, saying somebody stabbed me,” said Dane Reinstedt, assistant district attorney, adding that the other person never called police or told anyone what happened that night until the trial.
Defense attorneys will make their closing arguments Tuesday in a trial that started Oct. 14. Prosecutors will then have a chance to respond to the defense’s closing.
Defense attorneys say Lee, 43, was on a multi-day drug bender of cocaine and ketamine that made him agitated and violent, and that he attacked the defendant with a knife. They said Momeni was forced to use his Krav Maga martial arts skills in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023, after making a ” bad joke ” that upset Lee — and did not realize he had stabbed him.