Convicted murderer Nima Momeni is now making racial bias the centerpiece of his latest legal challenge.
Momeni, an Iranian-born man who is not a U.S. citizen, is due back in a San Francisco courtroom Friday as his new defense attorneys argue that prejudice influenced the trial that led to his conviction in the killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee.
The 42-year-old was convicted of second-degree murder in December 2024.
His legal team is now relying on California’s Racial Justice Act, alleging that prosecutors ran afoul of the statute, Courthouse News Service reported.
A San Francisco Superior Court judge is expected to examine the claims during a Friday morning evidentiary hearing, including accusations that prosecutors described Momeni in dehumanizing language and used references tied to his ethnicity during the proceedings.
Momeni was born in Iran and learned English as a second language.
The high-profile San Francisco murder case traces back to the early hours of April 4, 2023, when Lee, 43, was fatally stabbed beneath the Bay Bridge sometime between roughly 2:25 a.m. and 2:30 a.m.
Lee, a father of two, was widely known in the technology world.
He worked as a Google engineer, founded Cash App and later became an executive at cryptocurrency company MobileCoin.
After the stabbing, Lee left a trail of blood as he called 911 begging for help before collapsing on Main Street.
Prosecutors said Momeni went after Lee in a revenge attack involving his younger sister, Khazar, after she was sexually assaulted by a drug dealer.
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Momeni blamed Lee, prosecutors said, because Lee had used drugs with Khazar, introduced her to the dealer and left her alone with the assailant.
Khazar, married to a wealthy plastic surgeon, had a casual relationship with Lee and attended parties with him. Prosecutors showed jurors flirtatious text messages between the pair.
Prosecutors argued Momeni lured Lee away from Khazar’s luxury Millennium Tower apartment and brought him to a dark street beneath the Bay Bridge to kill him.
Khazar later sent Lee a message that morning before realizing he was dead: “Just wanted to make sure your doing ok. Cause i know nima came wayyyyyy down hard on you.”
She also bombarded Momeni with angry messages asking what had happened to Lee after they left her apartment. Jurors saw messages in which she called her brother a “lunatic” and “psycho.”
Momeni took the stand and offered a different story.
He testified Lee attacked him after Momeni made a “bad joke” about Lee spending time in strip clubs instead of with his family.
Prosecutors said Lee was unarmed when he was killed.
California’s Racial Justice Act became law in 2021. In 2025, a San Francisco judge granted an RJA motion for the first time in the city, finding implicit racial bias against a Black man convicted of gun charges.
His felony conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor.
It is unclear what would happen to Momeni’s murder conviction if a judge grants his RJA motion.
And despite the guilty verdict, Momeni still hasn’t been sentenced.
Nearly 20 months after jurors convicted him, he remains in San Francisco County jail awaiting a heavily delayed sentencing hearing.
He faces 16 years to life behind bars.
