DA: Suspect in killing of Cash App founder planned the attack
SAN FRANCISCO >> The 38-year-old tech consultant charged with the killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee planned the attack, drove the victim to a secluded spot and stabbed him over an apparent dispute related to the man’s sister, prosecutors said in a court document released Friday.
The motion to detain Nima Momeni without bail is the first official accounting of what may have led to the stabbing death of Lee in a deserted part of downtown San Francisco early morning on April 4. Momeni was arrested Thursday and appeared in a San Francisco courtroom Friday but did not enter a plea.
He is now scheduled to be arraigned April 25.
The judge in Friday’s brief hearing agreed to detain Momeni in jail without bail. If convicted, he faces 26 years to life in prison, said the office of District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
Momeni appeared in court wearing an orange sweatshirt and pants. He did not speak except to say, “Yes your honor,” when the judge asked if he agreed to decline his right to a speedy trial.
His younger sister Khazar Elyassnia sat with her husband, prominent San Francisco plastic surgeon Dino Elyassnia, and two other family members in the front row at the hearing. When Momeni entered the courtroom, an older woman made a heart sign with her hands and Momeni, who was wearing a face mask, smiled and nodded at them.
The family declined to speak to reporters.
Momeni is represented by Burlingame-based attorney Paula Canny, who was on vacation and whose brother Robert Canny, also an attorney, appeared in her place Friday. “The facts of what occurred, or didn’t occur, will come out over time,” he told reporters after the hearing.
On Thursday, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott announced Momeni’s arrest and said that the two men knew each other but declined to elaborate on their connection. He also refused to disclose a possible motive.
The motion to detain Momeni relies on surveillance video and testimony from a friend who was with Lee the afternoon and evening before he died. It does not name Khazar Elyassnia but lists her residence as in the Millennium Tower. Public records link the Elyassnia couple to a unit in the building.
The friend, Lee and Khazar Elyassnia had been drinking together the day before the attack at another person’s apartment, according to the document. The friend met Khazar Elyassnia through Lee several years prior.
The friend said they went to Lee’s hotel room, without Khazar Elyassnia, and noticed a conversation in which Momeni was questioning Lee over whether his younger sister “was doing drugs or anything inappropriate,” according to the document. Lee reassured Momeni that nothing inappropriate had happened. It is unclear whether the conversation took place in person or by phone.
The friend and Lee parted ways around 12:30 a.m. Shortly after, Lee went to the Millennium Tower, according to video surveillance.