Tech exec Nima Momeni pleads not guilty in slaying of Cash App founder Bob Lee

SAN FRANCISCO -- Tech executive Nima Momeni pleaded not guilty Thursday to the early morning fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee on a dark San Francisco street.

With Lee's family members and his mother and sister looking on from the courtroom, Momeni appeared in an orange jumpsuit, but did not speak. His attorney, Paula Canny, entered the plea on his behalf. 

Superior Court Judge Victor Hwang said he did not believe Momeni was a flight risk, but that he was a threat to the community. He granted a prosecution motion to keep Momeni in custody without bail while the case is plays out in court. 

"Anyone who's capable of violently killing someone in society is a public safety risk, regardless of whether we think a murder was intentional or not, it's somebody who's capable of taking another human life," said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins outside the courtroom.  "And so for that reason, they present a danger because you don't know whether tomorrow there will be a different life that they intend to take. And so that's why he needs to be held in custody."   

A preliminary hearing in the case has been schedule for May 30th.

"I'm not going to try to engage in in trying the case in the public," Jenkins said.  "But what I will say is that we absolutely don't believe this is a whodunit. We believe that we have the the murderer of Mr. Lee and that's Mr. Momenti. And so there's no question in our minds that we've charged the correct person who killed Mr. Lee."

The District Attorney also said both Momeni and his sister have refused to talk with police investigators.

Canny said this was "never a case of 'who done it,' it was always a case about 'what happened.'" Outside court Thursday, Canny offered a preview of her client's defense.

"My defense is it was a combination of an accident and self-defense," she said. "There was no premeditation or deliberation."

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Investigators believe that at roughly 2:30 a.m. on April 4, Momeni stabbed Lee three times with a kitchen knife -- one of the thrusts fatally ripping into Lee's heart -- in San Francisco's Rincon Hill neighborhood. 

The two apparently were in a dispute over Lee's relationship with Momeni's younger sister, Khazar Elyassnia.

When investigators accessed Lee's phone after his death, they discovered a text from Khazar saying:  'I know nima came wayyyyy down hard on you."

A witness told police while they were in Lee's hotel room the evening of the stabbing, the Cash App founder received a cell phone call from Momeni.

"The conversation was about the Defendant picking up the younger sister from the house where they had earlier met her...(The) Defendant was questioning Victim regarding whether his sister was doing drugs or anything in appropriate... (The) Victim assured Defendant nothing inappropriate had happened."

At 12:39 a.m. on April 4, Millennium Tower camera footage shows Lee arriving. At 2:03 a.m., the cameras show Lee and Momeni leaving together. Khazar Elyassnia lives in the residential tower.

Investigators were able to pull video from other cameras in the neighborhood. Those videos showed Monemi's BWM with Lee inside parked in a dark area of Main St. A confrontation ensues on the sidewalk. Lee is seen stumbling up the street, injured. The BMW races away.

Upon arrival, San Francisco police officers found Lee lying in the street with three stab wounds, two of those to the chest. He was rushed to San Francisco where he died of his wounds.

The medical examiner's report revealed that Lee had alcohol, cocaine and ketamine in his system at the time of his death.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Lee and Elyassnia liked to hang out in a Bay Area underground party scene known as "The Lifestyle" which features recreational drug use and casual sex.