The man accused of fatally knifing tech founder Bob Lee in April has been ordered held without bail after finally pleading not guilty to murder in San Francisco Superior Court Thursday.
Nima Momeni finally entered his plea through his attorney in answer to charges he killed the Cash App founder on April 4, after previous arraignments had been delayed, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Momeni, 38, has remained in a San Francisco County jail since his arrest. His attorney, Paula Canny, had argued he should be released on bail because he was not identifiable in grainy camera footage the police claim shows him standing with Lee minutes before he was stabbed.
She also said her client never fled the scene and Lee never mentioned him in a frantic 911 call, the San Francisco Standard reported, citing recent court records.
“If a person wants to kill another person, why would the assailant allow the person they are trying to kill to walk away. They would not,” Canny reportedly wrote.
“They would stab them in the back. They would not let them walk away.”
She added that when her client last saw Lee, the 43-year-old tech whiz “was walking upright,” according to the Standard.
Prosecutors have alleged Momeni’s sister, Khazar “Tina” Elyassnia, is at the center of the fatal feud between Lee and Momeni.
Hours before the stabbing, Momeni was said to have confronted Lee about his sister’s alleged drug use and “inappropriate” behavior after Lee spent the day with her and others, cops said.
Investigators said they learned Lee and Elyassnia, who is married, had known each other for years. Lee was found to have had ketamine and cocaine in his system at the time of his death .
Lee allegedly assured Momeni nothing “inappropriate” had happened before he continued his night.
Hours later, Lee left his friend, and was seen entering Elyassnia’s apartment around 12:39 a.m.
Surveillance footage also shows Lee and Momeni riding an elevator down to the lobby of Elyassnia’s apartment building shortly after 2 a.m. and climbing into Momeni’s white BMW, the document states.
Video then shows the pair inside the BMW as it arrives at a “dark and secluded area” on Main Street, near where a bloodied Lee was later found.
Prosecutors allege that the men both left the car and Momeni stabbed Lee.
Lee was “violently bleeding” when he called 911 shortly after he was stabbed on April 4, when a dispatcher said there was “a male screaming ‘help,’ saying ‘someone stabbed me’ … Advised he is bleeding out.
Momeni, a tech consultant, was arrested more than a week later. The Wall Street Journal reported Lee and Elyassnia were known to frequent underground drug and sex parties.