In the courtroom where Nima Momeni is on trial for the April 2023 murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee, the atmosphere grew increasingly confrontational on Wednesday. Khazar Momeni, who initially testified last Thursday as a witness for her brother Nima Momeni’s prosecution, has been the subject of our attention. She was uncooperative as a prosecution witness, but she was more forthcoming on Tuesday when the defence cross-examined her. However, she was criticised for merely responding “yes” to every leading question the defence lawyer asked her.
To the horror of victim Bob Lee’s family, the defence has been attempting to portray Lee as acting strangely and violently the day before he was killed. They have even shown text messages in which Lee was attempting to persuade Khazar Momeni to leave the flat of Jeremy Boivin, who has been identified as Lee’s drug dealer. It’s possible that Lee had Ms. Momeni’s best interests in mind; if she had departed, Lee may still be alive and the mess that followed would not have happened. She stayed, nevertheless. That afternoon, she blocked Lee’s number on her phone for a while. He then texted her on Telegram and WhatsApp, saying things like, “Get your ass in my Uber.” Or don’t talk to me ever again.”
With the intention of implying that, hours later, and without any justification, Lee was the aggressor in a knife fight with Momeni’s brother, the defence is utilising these communications to paint Lee as violent. Defence lawyer Saam Zangeneh questioned Khazar Momeni as KRON4 reported from the hearing on Tuesday: “He wasn’t concerned about you being alone yourself with Jeremy, was he? He doesn’t message you to avoid spending too much time alone with this Jeremy person. “Jeremy is no good,” Momeni said, “That’s right.
“At any time did he make sure you were okay?” Zangeneh enquired. “No,” she said, according to Mission Local. Later that night, after she had presumably sobered up and following the alleged sexual assault by Boivin, Khazar Momeni texted Lee a somewhat perplexing text message, which was not explained in her evidence. “Was just expecting more compassion,” she texted him. You wouldn’t speak to me in that manner if you respected me at all.” On April 4, this occurred at around midnight, two hours and a half before Lee would be fatally stabbed.
He was spotted getting to Khazar’s unit around twenty minutes later. According to Mission Local, the defence also prompted testimony that Khazar Momeni’s father had sexually abused her, a claim she makes in a furious text message to Nima Momeni.
When Prosecutor Dane Reinstedt started to reroute the testimony on Tuesday, saying, “Mr. Zangeneh, asked you a lot of questions today,” the hearing took a hostile tone. And you simply said, “Yes,” I believe hundreds of times. Is that correct?” When asked, “I don’t know,” Ms. Momeni responded. This trend persisted Wednesday morning, according to NBC Bay Area, “with ongoing objections, as well as a number of sidebar conversations between attorneys and the judge.”
Khazar Momeni was questioned by Reinstedt on a text message that was sent a few weeks ago. In it, Krista Lee, Lee’s ex-wife, was referring to her as “the whore of high tower” in a conversation with a friend. Momeni has called the text message “intimidating and threatening.” According to KTVU, Reinstedt was attempting to get Momeni to acknowledge that the text was “multiple steps removed” from her and wasn’t delivered to her directly, thus it couldn’t have been menacing or frightening.