Doctors tried frantically for 4 hours to save Cash App founder Bob Lee, autopsy report reveals
Cash App founder Bob Lee died on the operating table in San Francisco last month after being stabbed three times, including through the heart, according to an autopsy report from the San Francisco chief medical examiner’s office.
Nima Momeni, a 38-year-old tech consultant and entrepreneur, is accused of killing Lee, 43. Momeni was arrested April 13 in Emeryville on suspicion of murder after San Francisco police pieced together a narrative involving Lee, Momeni and Momeni’s sister.
Momeni was set to be arraigned Tuesday, but the hearing was postponed for the third time, to May 18, at the request of his attorney.
Momeni allegedly stabbed Lee with a kitchen knife on April 4 about 2:30 a.m. near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, according to police. Lee called 911 and told police he had been stabbed and needed help.
When paramedics found him, Lee was unconscious and didn’t have a pulse, according to the autopsy report. He underwent emergency surgery at San Francisco General Hospital, where doctors discovered he had two wounds to his heart, which were closed with staples. Lee also had an injury to his lung.
Doctors attempted further treatment, but Lee was pronounced dead at 6:49 a.m. on the operating table after they had spent nearly four hours trying to save his life.
Lee’s manner of death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner’s office, with the cause of death being “multiple stab wounds.”
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Alcohol, ketamine and cocaine were also found in Lee’s system, according to the autopsy report.
According to the narrative laid out by prosecutors in court documents, Momeni has a married sister who had been seen in Lee’s company. A close friend of Lee’s met Lee and the sister in an apartment on Mission Street the night before the stabbing. Both Lee and Momeni’s sister were drinking.
That friend later witnessed a conversation Lee had with Momeni about Momeni’s sister. The friend wasn’t sure whether Lee and the sister had an intimate relationship but told police the woman’s marital relationship “had possibly been in jeopardy.”
Prosecutors believe that Momeni was upset that, the night before the stabbing, something “inappropriate” might have happened with his sister and Lee.
San Francisco Police Department retrieved surveillance video from April 4 that appeared to show Momeni and Lee getting out of a BMW on Main Street. In the video, one of the two, believed to be Momeni, lunges toward the second person, believed to be Lee.
A kitchen knife with blood on the handle was later found by police near the sidewalk seen in the video.
A woman who has not been publicly identified accused Momeni of attacking her on Aug. 1, according to an Emeryville police report obtained by The Times. She called police at 3:11 p.m. to the 4000 block of Harlan Street. She appeared to be “upset and on the verge of crying.”
The woman told police that Momeni had been allowing her to stay on his couch in exchange for cleaning the unit; she said they were not in a romantic relationship. She said that, earlier that day, Momeni angrily yelled at her to get her belongings and leave. He allegedly grabbed her waist and arm and pushed her against a counter.
The woman told police that she suspected Momeni of being unstable and that “one minute he will be fine and the next he will go off for no reason.”
Initially the woman didn’t want to press charges but later changed her mind. Police took photos of the areas of the woman’s body where she said Momeni grabbed her; an officer said he saw redness but couldn’t tell if that was from being grabbed.
Momeni denied the allegation when questioned by police and told them he wanted to pursue charges against the woman, whom he accused of having pushed him.
Momeni’s roommate confirmed to police that he had seen Momeni and the woman arguing that day but didn’t see Momeni batter the woman.
Momeni was cited on suspicion of misdemeanor battery and released. The Alameda County district attorney’s office didn’t file charges against him and declined to disclose the reason.
The skyscraper would bring 712 apartment units to San Francisco and become the tallest building in an area that is home to mostly two- and three-story homes.
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