SAN FRANCISCO (NewsNation) — The 38-year-old tech consultant charged with the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee made his first appearance in a San Francisco courtroom Friday but did not enter a plea.
Nima Momeni, who police say knew Lee, is now scheduled to be arraigned on April 25.
The judge ordered Momeni held in jail without bail, as requested by San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. He faces 26 years to life in prison, the prosecutor’s office said.
Momeni appeared in court in an orange sweatshirt and pants. He did not speak except to say, “Yes, your honor,” when the judge asked if he agreed to decline his right to a speedy trial.
He is represented by attorney Paula Canny, who is on vacation and whose brother Robert Canny, also an attorney, appeared in her place Friday. “The facts of what occurred, or didn’t occur, will come out over time,” he told reporters after the hearing.
Momeni’s sister, Khazar Elyassnia, and her husband Dino Elyassnia, a San Francisco plastic surgeon, along with two family members, sat in the front row at the hearing. When Momeni entered the courtroom, an older woman made a heart sign with her hands and Momeni, who was wearing a face mask, smiled and nodded at them.
The family declined to answer reporters’ questions.
According to court documents, Lee and Momeni had an argument the night of Lee’s death over Momeni’s younger sister. The exact nature of that purported argument is unknown.
On Thursday, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott announced Momeni’s arrest and said that the two men knew each other but declined to elaborate on their connection. He also refused to disclose a possible motive.
Lee had recently moved to Miami with his father and was back in San Francisco for business when police found him with stab wounds in the downtown Rincon Hill neighborhood at 2:30 a.m. April 4. He died at a hospital.
Lee is known for creating the widely used mobile payment service Cash App while working as chief technology officer of the payment company Square, now known as Block.
Who is Nima Momeni?
On his Linkedin profile, Momeni calls himself “a dedicated technology partner since 2005.” He apparently lived in Emeryville, California — a city between Berkeley and Oakland.
His last listed employment was as the owner of Expand IT, Inc.
Criminal records show Momeni was charged in 2011 with carrying a switchblade, a misdemeanor offense. The case was dismissed the following year after he took a plea.