Nima Momeni responds to juror questions in 3rd day on the stand
Nov 18, 2024
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- For Nima Momeni's third day on the stand, the trial's 12 jurors threw dozens of questions at Bob Lee’s accused killer Monday morning. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Alexandra Gorden read each question out-loud for Momeni to answer.
Momeni was cordial and polite as he answered each juror's question, a huge contrast to his combative and fiery attitude during cross-examination with prosecutors last week. The jury appeared to enjoy being able to ask their own questions after listening to two full days of Momeni testifying in self-defense.
Most of the questions were detail oriented.
"You never told Dino, your brother-in-law, that Bob Lee attacked you with a knife, correct?" one juror asked.
"No, I never did," Momeni replied. "I did not let Dino know he attacked me."
Dino is the wealthy husband of Khazar, Momeni’s sister.
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Momeni testified last week that he pulled over and parked his BMW under the Bay Bridge on April 4, 2023, because Lee spilled a can of beer in his lap. Momeni said Lee exploded with anger after Momeni made a “bad joke.” Momeni claimed that the tech mogul attacked him with a knife, and Momeni fought back in self-defense.
"The beer can that was spilled in your car, what happened to the can?" a juror asked.
"I threw it away when I got home," replied Momeni.
"When you got home after the altercation, did you notice you had blood on your hands?" another juror asked.
Momeni replied, "I checked my hands, my jacket, there was no blood."
Momeni previously testified that he hung out with Lee and Khazar inside Khazar's Millennium Tower apartment on April 4, 2023. Khazar was recovering from overdosing on a "date rape drug," GHB, Lee was drinking and still had cocaine in his system, and Momeni was using cocaine and drinking beer, according to the defendant's testimony. Around 2 a.m. Khazar asked her brother and Lee to leave so she could go to sleep. "You mentioned you had a bump of cocaine and had some beers," a juror asked. "Were you high? Were you under the influence of drugs or alcohol?"
"No," Momeni replied. "I did a small bump of cocaine and had a beer with him. But it did not affect me."
Momeni testified last week that after Lee was stabbed, he drove home to Emeryville and searched online for Lee's criminal history. He also did internet searches to find criminal histories for Jeremy Boivin, the man who Khazar said sexually assaulted her and was Lee's drug dealer.
Momeni said he discovered that Boivin's criminal record includes rape and drug charges. Lee had a criminal record that was sealed, so Momeni was unable to research it, the defendant testified. Lee’s brother told reporters that the homicide victim had no criminal history, and Momeni’s testimony was riddled with lies.
"When you called your sister to tell her Mr. Lee attacked you, did you tell her he used a knife?" a juror asked.
"I did not mention the knife," the defendant replied. "Did you tell your mom and sister about what you learned about Mr. Boivin?" a juror asked.
"My mom and Dino. It was a group text at 8 a.m. I texted them, 'This is what I found, these guys are serious offenders, stay away from them,'" Momeni said.
The judge asked, "You said, 'these guys,' plural?"
Momeni said after Lee allegedly attacked him, he believed that Lee may have been involved in Boivin's criminal activities. Momeni said he wanted his sister to undergo a rape kit test and determine if Boivin raped her while she was in Boivin’s apartment on April 3, 2023.
"When you picked up the knife to dispose of it, how far away was Mr. Lee at that point?" a juror asked.
"He had already started walking away from me," Momeni said. "I didn't want him coming back to grab it again.""After you tell a bad joke, (Lee) draws a knife from his pocket. Do you remember which?" a juror asked.
"His right jacket pocket," replied Momeni.
Earlier in the trial, prosecutors said Khazar wrote a text to Lee before she realized that he was dead. She wrote, “Just wanted to make sure your doing ok. Cause i know nima came wayyyyyy down hard on you. And thank you for being such a classy man handling it with class.”
Prosecutors said Khazar’s text reveals the truth about what led up to the deadly stabbing. According to prosecutors, Lee was unarmed when Momeni murdered his victim to get revenge for Khazar.
"You don't know what your sister meant, that you came down way hard on him?" a juiror asked.
"No. At no point I came down hard on him," Momeni said. "There was nothing between me and Bob."
The prosecutor asked, in reference to a text message sent to Dino and his mother at 8 a.m. on April 4, 2023, "You told your mom these guys are serious offenders. You didn't also add, 'Oh and Bob tried to kill you with a knife?'"
"No, I did not add that," Momeni said.
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Once all of the jurors' questions were answered, the judge excused Momeni from the stand. He is subject to recall, so he could return to the stand before his trial is over.
After Momeni returned to his seat next to his defense attorneys, the defense team's next witness was called into the courtroom: former San Francisco Police Department officer Steven Pomatto. Pomatto was a 23-year veteran of the SFPD force. He retired before Lee was slain.
Defense attorney Tony Brass has mutual friends with Pomatto, and he asked him to investigate the case for Momeni. Pomatto told the jury that he taught self-defense tactics at the police academy, and he's an expert at evaluating knife wounds of homicide victims.
Brass asked, "Have you ever been an expert for the defense before?"
Pomatto answered, "Never."
Pomatto said Brass asked him to evaluate Lee's autopsy report earlier this year and provide a "reasonable explanation about how this incident unfolded."
Brass asked, during Pomatto's career at SFPD, "Did you look at and evaluate wounds to determine what happened? Because sometimes they tell a story?
"Yes, they do," Pomatto answered.
Brass displayed images in the courtroom of Lee's autopsy. One image showed Lee's torso with knife wounds.
It struck Pomatto as "odd" that Lee was "only" stabbed three times. "A minimal amount of wounds. There's usually up to 10 (wounds) when there's people in a fight," the former officer testified.
The former officer will resume testifying Monday afternoon after a lunch break.