The verdict finalized: Tech consultant receives maximum second-degree murder sentence
SAN FRANCISCO — November 11, 2026.
More than three years after Cash App founder Bob Lee collapsed on a dark San Francisco sidewalk bleeding from fatal stab wounds, his killer learned his prison fate. In a tense courtroom at the Hall of Justice on Bryant Street, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Alexandra Gordon formally sentenced tech consultant Nima Momeni to 16 years to life in California state prison.
The sentence—15 years to life for second-degree murder plus a mandatory consecutive one-year enhancement for using a deadly weapon—comes after Judge Gordon firmly rejected defense motions seeking to throw out Momeni’s December 2024 conviction and order a new trial. Momeni, 41, has spent over 1,300 days in county custody since his April 2023 arrest and will receive credit for time served before transferring to state prison.
“Bob Lee was a beloved father, son, brother, and innovator whose life was stolen in an act of senseless, deliberate violence,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said following the hearing. “Today's sentence brings legal closure to a devastating chapter and ensures accountability under the law.”
Emotional impact statements and the defense's final arguments
The sentencing hearing drew a packed gallery split between Lee’s grieving family and Momeni’s relatives. Lee’s brother, Tim Lee, delivered a raw, tearful victim impact statement describing the permanent void left in the lives of Bob Lee’s two young daughters and aging father.
“Bob dedicated his genius to bringing people together and building technology that millions use every single day,” Tim Lee told the court. “He did not deserve to die in the shadows on a cold street. No sentence can ever bring him back, but justice demands that his killer never walk freely among our community again.”
Momeni stood in orange jail scrubs flanked by defense attorney Saam Zangeneh. Addressing the court briefly, Momeni expressed condolences to the Lee family, insisting in a quiet voice that he never set out that night to harm anyone. Defense counsel argued for leniency and indicated that an appeal challenging jury instructions and forensic evidence will be lodged immediately with the California First District Court of Appeal.
How an argument over a sister escalated into a fatal confrontation
During the lengthy trial in late 2024, prosecutors meticulously dismantled initial public speculation that Bob Lee’s death was the result of random street violence in downtown San Francisco. Instead, prosecutors presented surveillance footage, phone records, and forensic data proving a personal confrontation driven by family rage.
Hours before the stabbing, Momeni had confronted Lee regarding Momeni’s sister, Khazar Elyassnia, questioning whether she had been supplied drugs or inappropriately touched during an afternoon gathering at a luxury apartment. In the early morning hours of April 4, 2023, security cameras captured Momeni driving Lee in his white BMW sedan to a secluded strip along Main Street beneath the Bay Bridge.
Investigators recovered a four-inch kitchen paring knife discarded near the scene, bearing Momeni’s DNA on the handle and Lee’s blood on the blade. While Momeni claimed on the witness stand that Lee pulled the knife during an argument and that he acted in self-defense, jurors rejected that testimony after examining autopsy findings that showed three distinct puncture wounds, including a fatal penetration directly into Lee's heart.
