Khazar Momeni, the sister of Nima Momeni, the man on trial for the alleged murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee, testified today that at a gathering hours before Lee was murdered, she was given date-rape drugs, and was sexually assaulted by a man Lee introduced her to.
She called Lee “erratic” and “extra” on the days leading up to his death.
Momeni made the statements during a second day of direct questioning by prosecutors, who are likely working to establish Nima Momeni’s state of mind on April 4, 2023 when the stabbing occurred.
Prosecutors have alleged that Momeni stabbed Lee over his perception of some inappropriate event that took place the afternoon of April 3 at the home of Lee’s acquaintance and alleged drug dealer, Jeremy Boivin.
Sexual assault allegations
Momeni said that on the morning of Monday, April 3, 2023, Lee introduced her to Jeremy Boivin — who she has referred to as “the drug dealer” — and brought him over to her home to party around 8 a.m.
The prosecutor, Dane Reinstedt asked if this was the first time Momeni had met Boivin.
“Correct,” Momeni responded.
When asked what context she met Boivin under, Momeni said, “I did not know he’s a drug dealer, as we don’t get close to our drug dealers or invite them upstairs, even. He was introduced to me as a friend.”
Reinstedt asked if she and Boivin “hit it off” that day.
“I don’t understand what you mean by hitting it off, but he brought me a big tank of nitrous, and he had a big bottle of a liter of GHB,” Momeni replied.
That Monday afternoon, she went to Boivin’s home; Lee and another friend also came by. After Lee and his friend left, she said, she and her friend passed out from consuming too much GHB.
“He asked me about GHB and gave me, like, this sweet little drink, a little shot. And I drank it,” Momeni said. “I thought I could trust him.”
Momeni said she took three of those shots, then was in and out of consciousness.
“I remember waking up twice: One time he pulled down my pants and slapped my ass,” Momeni said referring to Boivin. “And another time he grabbed my ass, but I couldn’t move or do anything.”
She called Boivin a “predator” who was physically abusive to her on multiple occasions after that day, and said her mother had even called the police on him later on.
“Police officers showed up to his door and told me that they knew I was physically assaulted,” Momeni said, describing a later incident with Boivin. “He had hit my head against the bed. I had a huge bump on my head, he had choked me and slapped me, but I wouldn’t admit to it.”
Throughout her testimony, which began on Thursday and continued all day today, she often seemed to trail off, or wouldn’t directly answer Assistant District Attorney Dane Reinstedt’s questions, leading him to reiterate his queries multiple times in a row.
Often, Momeni would begin speaking, then would ask Reinstedt to repeat his question. She rarely looked up at anyone while speaking.
And as Momeni testified about her alleged assault today, Lee’s ex-wife, Krista Lee, who sat in the courtroom, appeared to be shaking her head in disbelief and even chuckling.
Momeni said that she and her friends were using cocaine in the days leading up to the stabbing in the early morning of Tuesday, April 4, including Lee and possibly her brother.
“What was going on? What were you all doing?” Reinstedt asked of a night prior when Momeni, Lee, and her brother were together at her home.
“Talking, chatting,” she said. “I had just introduced Bob to my brother, he was very excited. They were having drinks together.”
This was the first time that Momeni gave the date her brother met Lee.
Bob Lee on the afternoon before his death
Momeni said that on April 3 when she, Lee and others were at Bovin’s apartment, Lee asked her to leave with him, but that she had refused. She said part of the reason was that a friend of Lee’s, Borzu Mohazzabi, was making her uncomfortable. Lee left with Mohazzabi.
“He was very adamant about me joining them and was pretty aggressive, screaming at me to get in the car,” Momeni said, referring to Lee.
“Screaming at you?” Reinstedt asked.
“Just loudly stating, ‘Get in the car,’ and I did not want to join them,” Momeni said.
Momeni said she subsequently blocked Lee’s phone number, and prosecutors showed Lee’s messages to her on other channels like WhatsApp and Signal, asking her to leave with him.
Eventually, after the alleged assault, Momeni said she called her brother to pick her up, and told him what had happened.
“I was shocked how mature he was and how he was handling it,” she said. “He was very calm and just being a bigger brother and just asking me what it was that I was taking, basically.”
Later on the night of April 3, 2023, Nima Momeni and Lee visited Khazar’s home. Things were cheerful, she testified, and the two men had their arms around each other. Eventually, Momeni said she kicked them out, and the two men were seen leaving on surveillance cameras around 2 a.m.
A disagreement between Lee and Momeni
Soon after, the two men stood together by the Bay Bridge, where Lee was stabbed; Momeni was captured on surveillance footage speeding away from the area in his car.
“Approximately 40 minutes after your brother and Bob left your apartment, your brother called you,” said Reinstedt, referring to a phone call from Nima Momeni around 2:40 a.m., just minutes after Lee was stabbed.
“I remember he reached out to me,” Momeni said. “I was really close on my way to the smoke shop and I was trying to get off the phone.”
“Was he angry at you in that call?” Reinstedt asked.
“No, he was concerned he wanted to make sure I had gone to sleep,” Momeni said. “He was telling me his night didn’t turn out the way he wanted to, and he told me not to let Bob back home. He was telling me [Lee] was acting erratic.”
Reinstedt asked to strike part of this response from the court record.
“Did you question him about what that meant?”
“I thought they had, I don’t know, they just had a disagreement of some kind. I didn’t think anything more than that,” Momeni said.
For the first time, Khazar Momeni said today that she and Lee never had a sexual relationship. A text Lee sent her around 8 a.m. before arriving at her house on April 3, read aloud by prosecutor Dane Reinstedt today, offered to bring her whippits in exchange for “a blowjob.” Khazar said it was a joke, and called Lee “a little extra” that weekend.
Khazar Momeni also began making comments about Lee’s character on the stand today, describing him as “erratic” in the weekend before he was allegedly stabbed to death by her brother.
In text messages between Lee and Khazar Momeni sent in the hours before Lee’s death, Khazar apologized for her brother coming down on Lee, and thanked him for being “such a classy man.” Those texts have been used by prosecutors to show Momeni was angry and had a motive to stab Lee.
“What did you mean by that, Ms. Momeni?” San Francisco Superior Court Judge Alexandra Gordon asked.
“Bob was not a calm person. He was very erratic, he would get in your face,” Khazar said.
“Sorry, I meant, just this sentence here, ‘thank you for being such a classy man and handling it with class,’ — What did you mean by that?” Gordon continued.
“I always encouraged him to be the better version of himself,” Khazar said. “And as much as he could be erratic, he also was able to compose himself well, too, if he wanted to.”
At this, Lee’s brother Timothy Oliver Lee abruptly walked out of the courtroom.
Later, Timothy Oliver Lee told Mission Local that it was difficult to hear Momeni “mischaracterizing” his brother’s demeanor and that his brother was “not here to defend himself.”
“He was a calm, awesome person,” said Timothy Oliver Lee. “And so describing him as erratic and things like that is way off base.”
Khazar Momeni’s characterization of Lee plays into the defense’s strategy: Nima Momeni’s lawyers have tried to paint a picture of Lee as a drug user who attempted to stab Momeni, who was acting in self-defense when he turned the knife on Lee.
Last week, Khazar Momeni testified that her brother did not kill Lee.
“…referring to a phone call from Nima Momeni around 2:40 a.m., just minutes after Lee was stabbed…Khazar said…He was telling me his night didn’t turn out the way he wanted to…”
I would’ve like to have seen the Armani suited lawyer’s face at the moment Khazar let that one slip. There goes painting Lee as the psychopath.
So you didn’t tell anyone it was “self defense “ after the murder until your Florida counsel suggest it. We are not in Florida, thank goodness.
Nothing like a reliable witness…….
Its hard to imagine that Nima Momeni did not get cuts if the stabbing happened as he described. Khazar also mentions that Nima possibly also joined in and used cocaine with others at one gathering. I’m sure more will be revealed from witnesses about Nimas character and possible drug use, moving on. Really good reporting missionlocal, thank you.
Wait, so she’s saying in court that her brother didn’t kill Lee, but her brother’s saying in court that he did kill Lee?
ML,
Thanks for sitting through this steaming pile for us.
Speaking of which, what happened to Jacobo ?
h.