SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Closing arguments will begin 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 a dispute over his treatment toward Momeni's sister, Khazar Momeni, with whom Lee was friends.
Defense attorneys say Lee, 43, was on a multi-day drug bender of cocaine and ketamine that made him agitated and violent, forcing Momeni to use his Krav Maga martial arts skills to fend off the paring knife Lee brandished in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023 after a "bad joke."
Momeni faces 26 years to life if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.
The trial, which began Oct. 14, has been emotionally taxing for family members of both men. Mahnaz Tayarani, mother of the defendant, has sat on one side of the courtroom while Lee's father, brother and ex-wife sat on the other.
"Even if he was under the influence, he was still Bob. He was never aggressive. He was always a teddy bear and always a great guy," said Timothy Oliver Lee.
Surveillance video shows the two men leaving the posh condo of Khazar Momeni around 2 a.m. and getting into Momeni's BMW. Other surveillance then shows them getting out of the car in an isolated section of the city by the Bay Bridge.
"I was scared for my life," Momeni said in testimony that was at times rambling and contentious. "I had to defend myself."
Lee was found staggering on a deserted downtown San Francisco street at 2:30 a.m., dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. He later died at a hospital.
Prosecutors say Momeni was furious with Lee after he introduced Khazar to a drug dealer who gave her GHB, known as a date-rape drug, hours before the stabbing. They say Momeni grilled Lee earlier in the evening about what might have happened to his sister at the drug dealer's apartment.
A knife recovered from where Lee was stabbed showed Momeni's DNA on it; however, defense argued it should have been tested for Lee's fingerprints too.
Lee's death stunned the tech community as fellow executives and engineers penned tributes to his generosity and brilliance. He was chief product officer of cryptocurrency platform MobileCoin when he died.