LOS ANGELES — A 40-year-old tech consultant has been convicted of second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee in San Francisco last year.

The verdict read Tuesday arrives more than a year after Lee was found bleeding to death in a downtown San Francisco street.

The jury listened to over six weeks of testimony about a drug bender, sexual assault and ultimately an early morning stabbing in San Francisco in April 2023.

During closing arguments, prosecutors played the 911 call Lee made after Nima Momeni stabbed him and left him dying on the street, the Associated Press reported.

The jury listened as Lee repeatedly asked for help on the call.

Lee, 43, was found bleeding downtown around 2:30 a.m. on April 4, 2023. He later died from his injuries.

Momeni stabbed Lee three times near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge because he was upset that Lee introduced his sister, Khazar Momeni, to a man who allegedly gave her GHB, known as a date-rape drug. Khazar Momeni testified that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Jeremy Boivin, a friend of Lee's and described by prosecutors as a drug dealer, according to reporting from news station ABC7. Boivin has not been charged in connection to the case, according to authorities.

Lee's family spoke to reporters after the verdict was read and thanked the jury and prosecutors for securing a guilty verdict.

Lee's brother, Timothy Oliver Lee, acknowledged that the jury was presented with a difficult case.

"It was Nima's word versus my brother's word, which he's not here for anyone to be able to hear those words," he told CBS news station KPIX. "We think justice was done here today."

Lee would have turned 45 on Friday, according to his family. His murder and the trial have hung over their heads for over a year. Tuesday's verdict provided some sense of closure, family members said.

"Our family tries to start healing from here," Timothy Oliver Lee said. "What's happened over the last 18 months is that this has been an open wound for our family. It's been so difficult because of the scrutiny and all the context that has been around us has been extremely hard for us. This marks a point where we know that Nima Momeni is being held accountable for his actions."

Momeni faces up to 16 years in prison.

His mother, Mahnaz Tayarani Babai, expressed her condolences to Lee's family and said both families are the victims of drug abuse.

She told reporters outside the courtroom she was disappointed.

"He is the kindest person. Every mother would love to have a son like him. I know my son and he never done that," she said. "This is not a fair trial."

She suggested Lee's family start an organization to address drug use to honor his memory, "so in the future no other families will face such a difficult time."

One of Momeni's attorneys, Tony Brass, said they will review the case for an appeal.

"These are hard-fought battles and within this battle there were a lot of decisions made, some of them we don't think are right," Brass told news station KRON, referring to evidence admitted into the trial.

The trial, which started Oct. 14, ends a chapter in a killing that rocked the Bay Area. The jury reached their verdict after seven days of deliberation.

Early reports of Lee's death sparked fear and criticism in San Francisco about rampant crime, though the narrative around the incident quickly changed after police announced Momeni's arrest and provided details about a possible motive.

Assistant District Attorney Dane Reinstedt summarized the events that led to the stabbing in his closing arguments on Monday.

Hours before the stabbing, Lee met Nima Momeni at Momeni's sister's condo on Mission Street and Momeni questioned Lee about what happened to her. Nima Momeni then grabbed a paring knife from the kitchen before heading out the door with Lee.

Video from an elevator shows the men leave the building around 2 a.m. and then driving away in Momeni's BMW.

On the stand in his trial, Momeni testified that Lee attacked him after he made a "bad joke" while they were in the car, according to the Associated Press.

"I was scared for my life," Momeni told the jury.

Momeni testified he drove over a pothole and Lee spilled a beer he was holding, so he pulled over on a quiet section of the Bay Bridge. That's when Momeni joked that Lee should spend his last night visiting the city with his family instead of trying to find a strip club, according to his testimony.

Momeni's defense attorney claimed Lee was upset and attacked Momeni, forcing his client to use his Krav Maga martial arts skills to defend himself, according to the Associated Press. Momeni did not realize Lee was stabbed, his attorney told the jury during his closing argument.

But prosecutors said that the stab wounds were precise, clean and not made by someone in a self-defense posture.

Momeni didn't call police to report that Lee attacked him with a knife or even after it was reported that Lee was found on a street with stab wounds and later died, Reinstedt said.

Alcohol, ketamine and cocaine were found in Lee's system, according to an autopsy report.

Defense attorneys claimed that Lee was on a multiday drug-fueled bender, which would explain why he was agitated and violent the night he died.

Defense attorney Saam Zangeneh played surveillance video in his closing arguments that shows Lee and a friend outside the private San Francisco social club The Battery. In the video, Lee allegedly snorted drugs off an object that Zangeneh claims was the knife used in his own murder, according to reporting from ABC7.

In response, Assistant District Attorney Omid Talai asked the jury to consider why none of Lee's DNA was found on that object if it was supposedly the knife used in the killing. Prosecutors said that only Momeni's DNA was found on the knife.

Prosecutors showed video of Lee before he was stabbed. At one point, his jacket was open and Reinstedt said there was no knife visible. Another video, albeit grainy, showed the men on the bridge but it showed that Momeni was the aggressor, according to reporting from the Associated Press.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins thanked prosecutors, the jury and Lee's family after the verdict was read. Jenkins said her office was satisfied with the verdict, despite seeking a first-degree murder conviction.

"Although nothing will bring back Mr. Lee, I hope that this verdict brings his family and friends some closure as they work to heal from this devastating loss," she said in a statement.

She reminded the public that Lee's killing was not random and police were able to find his killer.

"We all know that after Bob Lee was murdered, Elon Musk took to Twitter to make an effort to really shame San Francisco and to make it seem like this was about lawlessness in San Francisco and about what's going on out in our streets, and we knew it was something different," she said, referring to the Tesla chief executive.

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.