Tech consultant Nima Momeni gets 16 years to life for fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee

A San Francisco court has sentenced Nima Momeni to 16 years to life in prison for the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee. The tech consultant learned his fate on Tuesday, more than a year and a half after a jury convicted him of second-degree murder. That jury, which delivered its verdict in December 2024, rejected Momeni's claim that he had acted in self-defense.He has been in custody since his arrest, which came nine days after the killing on April 4, 2023. Before passing sentence, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Alexandra Gordon turned down Momeni's request for a new trial. His attorneys have said they plan to appeal.Lee was 43 when he died, having been found staggering on a deserted downtown street, dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. He later died at a hospital. Prosecutors said Momeni planned the attack, driving Lee to an isolated spot under the Bay Bridge and stabbing him three times, including once to the heart, with a knife he took from his sister's kitchen.Nima Momeni, the man charged in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee, makes his way into the courtroom at the Hall of Justice for his arraignment in San Francisco, May 2, 2023 (AP)They said Momeni was angry with Lee for introducing his younger sister to a drug dealer, who, she says, gave her GHB and other drugs and then sexually assaulted her. Momeni gave a different account when he testified on the stand, saying Lee was the one who attacked him with a knife, angry after the tech consultant chided him about spending more time with his family instead of searching for a strip club that night.Momeni, who studies martial arts, said he didn't realize he had fatally wounded Lee or that Lee was even hurt. In court on Tuesday, Momeni, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, maintained that he acted in self-defense. He told Lee's family that he understood their loss. “Unfortunately, we have completely different understandings of what transpired,” Momeni said.Krista Lee, the ex-wife of Cash App founder Bob Lee, listens during a news conference at the Hall of Justice following Nima Momeni's murder trial (AP)Members of Lee's family addressed the court, including his 18-year-old daughter, Scout Lee, who spoke directly to Momeni. “You did not just end his life, you ended an entire future built around a man,” she told Momeni, according to media reports. The jurors rejected a charge of murder in the first degree, which required prosecutors to prove that Momeni acted deliberately, willfully, and with premeditation.Murder in the second degree does not require premeditation. Lee, a renowned tech mogul, had created the mobile payment service Cash App and was the chief product officer of the cryptocurrency MobileCoin when he died.