The jury that will decide the fate of Nima Momeni reconvened Monday afternoon for the seventh day of deliberations on his trial for the murder of tech executive Bob Lee in April of 2023.

Last Thursday, a deadline loomed for the jury. Dec. 12 was the "hardship date" set months ago by the judge during jury selection. When a verdict was not reached by the end of the day Thursday, jurors were able to opt out of the trial and end their participation on the jury.

Court officials confirmed on Thursday that jurors requested more time, all agreeing to stay on the case so they could come to a unanimous verdict. 

If any jurors had decided to leave the trial, an alternate would have been chosen and deliberations would have to restart. Additionally, if there weren't enough alternates to fill the jury, then a mistrial would have called.

Deliberations in the case resumed Monday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. Officials did not say why the jury was not meeting at 9:30 a.m. as they had on previous days of deliberation. 

"From my perspective, I think it's a good thing the jury is taking a long time. It means they understand the gravity of the situation," said Shannan Dugan, an attorney who's followed the case from the courtroom. "They don't want to let a murderer off, but they also don't want to convict a man of murder if he didn't do it. So, I think the fact that they're taking a long time speaks highly of the jury and they understand how important their job is."

Dugan said jurors have had a lot to digest throughout the course of the trial.

"This jury could be deadlocked. That might be one of the reasons why this is taking so long," she said.

Prosecutors argue Momeni attacked Lee because he was upset about an incident involving Lee and his sister. Momeni and his defense team argue Lee attacked him, and he was acting in self-defense.

Dugan said although Momeni is charged with first-degree murder, there is a possibility the jury would acquit there but still convict him of a lesser charge.

"He's charged with first degree murder, which requires premeditation, but there are also what are called lesser included offenses – which are second degree murder and manslaughter," she said. "Second degree murder is if he didn't have that premeditation but he intended to stab Bob Lee without any legal justification. For manslaughter, if he acted in the heat of passion or impulsively, but without that premeditation or without any kind of planning, they could convict him of manslaughter."

If the jury cannot come to an agreement, a hung jury would result in a mistrial and the case would have to be re-tried from the beginning with a new jury.

Duggan said it was encouraging that the jurors decided to stay on the case past the scheduled hardship date.

"I think they're going to come back with something. I mean, who knows what they're doing exactly in that jury room, but I think they're going to come back with something," Dugan said. "The fact that they're coming back at 1:30, I suspect they wanted to give all of the fellow jury members time to really solidify their decisions and sleep on it. I don't know if that's going to be a verdict of guilty, an acquittal [or] a hung jury, but I suspect they're going to come back with something on Monday."