A friend who hung out with slain Cash App founder Bob Lee just hours before Lee was fatally stabbed in San Francisco last year has testified during the trial of his alleged killer.
Nima Momeni is accused of fatally stabbing him with a kitchen knife in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023. His attorneys are claiming self-defense, while the prosecution is painting a picture of Momeni stabbing Lee in a fit of aggression after he felt his sister, Khazar Momeni, was disrespected.
Wednesday’s witness described a laid-back evening of hanging out with Lee, but did recount what he said was a strange conversation between Lee and Momeni.
Borzoyeh Mohazzabi, who worked in the same tech circle as Lee, spent the night of April 3 catching up with him, he said on the stand. Mohazzabi, who said he considered Lee one of his “best friends,” also met with Lee to get his advice on a startup project Mohazzabi was working on.
“I think he is somebody who was very well-known and legendary in the tech industry,” Mohazzabi said. “I was actually developing my own project, my own software product idea. That was actually one of the reasons why I wanted to meet up with Bob.”
Unfolding the timeline
The prosecution walked the jury through the timeline of the two’s encounter. They first met up around 4:15 p.m. at the apartment of Jeremy Boivin, an alleged drug dealer. Khazar was also in attendance.
“I walked in and saw her. She was sitting on the couch,” he said. “Khazar was holding a whippet canister.”
Whippets refers to nitrous oxide, a party inhalant that can cause a brief sense of euphoria.
Mohazzabi said he used a whippet and had a drink of tequila. Omid Talai, the lead prosecutor on the case, showed Mohazzabi a photo of him sitting on a couch holding a whippet canister. Lee took the photo.
“It was pretty chill, you know. It was a Monday afternoon, it was pretty calm. It wasn’t like loud music was playing or anything,” Mohazzabi said.
However, he also testified to seeing what looked like a “bowl of drugs” sitting on a coffee table.
“There was a bowl of what appeared to be drugs. It was white powder,” he said. “It was mellow and chill, besides the bowl of powder we just discussed.”
Talai repeatedly asked Mohazzabi about Lee’s demeanor throughout the night and the overall vibe of their get-together, to which Mohazzabi reaffirmed that Lee was level-headed and acting normal. He also denied doing any other drugs or seeing Lee take any drugs.
“If we had done a lot of drugs, I would have remembered that,” Mohazzabi said. “There’s no recollection of me physically doing it or seeing Bob doing it.”
Momeni’s defense is trying to argue that Lee was on a 90-hour drug-fueled binge that resulted in him being the aggressor when the stabbing occurred, justifying their client’s act as self-defense.
“While Bob Lee was sleep deprived, Nima Momeni was forced to defend himself and stand his ground,” said Saam Zangeneh, a Miami-based attorney leading Momeni’s defense team, in his opening statement.
According to apartment surveillance footage, Mohazzabi and Lee left the apartment together after about 45 minutes.
The prosecution played surveillance video of the two inside an elevator, in which they can be seen high fiving each other and hugging. Mohazzabi even jokingly motioned trying to kiss Lee, to which the courtroom reacted in laughter.
The pair spent the rest of the night having drinks at bars and talking about Mohazzabi’s startup idea. Back at Lee’s hotel room, they started making video calls to friends, according to Mohazzabi.
“We were having a fun time, really connecting. As part of this fun, we really love FaceTiming friends,” Mohazzabi said. “We FaceTimed Krista, Bob’s ex-wife. We FaceTimed my fiance Katherine.”
The strange phone call
However, their relaxing hangout took a turn when Lee got on the phone with Momeni, according to Mohazzabi.
“At some point I heard there was a phone call that was unusual,” he said. “There were questions, almost like a detective asking questions, like ‘What’s going on with my sister? What did she take? What were you guys doing?’”
Mohazzabi said that the call stood out and appeared serious.
“He sounded like an overprotective brother,” Mohazzabi said. “He said something about ‘girls getting naked’ … The idea of ‘girls getting naked’ is so far from what I experienced. I couldn’t imagine Bob getting into a situation like that.”
He became especially uncomfortable once Momeni allegedly started asking Lee about who he was with and what he looked like.
“That was scary. Why would someone want this information about me and where I was on a Monday at 4 p.m. just hanging out,” he said.
During cross examination, the defense ripped into Mohazzabi on his alleged drug use during the night. Toward the end of the surveillance video taken inside the elevator after Lee and he left Boivin’s apartment, Mohazzabi can be seen taking something green out of his pocket.
“We just saw a video of you in an elevator,” Zangeneh said. “That was a little green baggie, right? You’re refusing to admit it.”
Mohazzabi pressed back against Zangeneh, saying he had no recollection of what the item was.
“I recently saw this video. This was a year and a half ago. I see that I take something out of my pocket. I’m not going to speculate on what that was,” he said. “I’m here to speak the truth.”
Lee and Mohazzabi concluded their night together by hanging out at Mohazzabi’s apartment. At around 12:30 a.m., Lee left his apartment and headed to Khazar’s place.
“His last text to me was flight details for a trip we were planning to Miami the next day. We had a morning flight, which was leaving at 7:30 a.m.,” he said.
Lee would never make the flight the next day. Over the rest of the trial, the prosecution and defense will try to formulate their own version of what happened between Lee leaving Mohazzabi’s apartment and ending up dead a few hours later from three stab wounds.
Mohazzabi will continue his testimony on Thursday. Khazar Momeni is also expected to testify for the defense starting Thursday or Friday.