Khazar Momeni arrived in court for a second day of testimony Monday, when potentially she will answer more questions from prosecutors as well as the defense team.
Khazar Momeni is seen is a key witness in the trial of brother Nima Momeni for the April 2023 murder of tech entrepreneur Bob Lee, though much of the evidence she has provided to the prosecution's case already came in the form of text messages to Lee and to her brother.
Prosecutors may try to press her further about what she meant in one text that is seen as damning for her brother's defense. Shortly after Lee and her brother left her apartment in Millennium Tower the morning of Lee's death, Khazar Momeni texted Lee "Just wanted to make sure your doing ok cause I know Nima came wayyyyyy down hard on you and thank you for being such a classy man handling it with class love you selfish pricks."
In her first day of testimony on Thursday, Ms. Momeni was less than forthcoming in answering prosecutors questions, and chalked up some of her other text messages to being high on drugs — and saying that she didn't remember sending some of them.
Khazar Momeni, Nima Momeni’s sister to take the stand again in a few minutes in Bob Lee murder trial. pic.twitter.com/5AM0rxPQj8
— Melanie Woodrow (@MelanieWoodrow) October 21, 2024
In one, she calls her brother "psychotic," and she shrugged this off as being normal banter between siblings.
She also texted her brother that she was going to "get to the bottom" of how Lee was killed, after the media began reporting on the death, and Nima Momeni replied that he didn't know what happened after he dropped Lee off at a bar or strip club.
That has already been shown to be a lie, as Momeni's defense admits that he got into an altercation with Lee and knew that he'd stabbed him. But their theory of the case is that Lee took the kitchen knife from Khazar Momeni's apartment and, in a surge of cocaine-fueled aggression, attacked Momeni when he drove Lee to a darkened area under the Bay Bridge, and then Momeni turned the knife back on Lee in self-defense.
It will be interesting to see whether Khazar Momeni "remembers" more from that night once she is under questioning by the defense.
The prosecution also questioned her Thursday about why she invited a man identified as Lee's drug dealer, who was implicated in the "inappropriate" acts that occurred earlier in the day that Nima Momeni was angry about, over to her apartment that morning after Lee and her brother left. Jeremy Boivin apparently brought Khazar Momeni a "tank" of nitrous oxide after 2 am that morning, but she denies that anything sexual occurred.
Update: In testimony Monday morning, Khazar Momeni reiterated that she had been on multiple substances the Monday before Lee's death, including GHB, LSD, nitrous oxide, and cocaine. As KTVU reports, she also told the court that she was consuming multiple subtances for about a week after Lee's death. (We also know that, months later, she was arrested by the SFPD on suspicion of DUI with a canister of nitrous oxide, or whip-its, in her car, in November 2023.)
The prosecution also asked, per KTVU, about texts in which Khazar Momeni referred to "blow" or cocaine in conversing with her brother, pressing her on whether Nima Momeni may have been doing cocaine as well. Khazar Momeni reportedly replied, "I can see how you're trying to connect this... but you're wrong. He was totally fine that weekend."
As NBC Bay Area reports, prosecutors also asked Ms. Momeni about a text in which she said to her brother, after Lee's death hit news, "no ill call the cops too since you called them too."
This story will be further updated with more reporting from today's testimony.
Previously: Khazar Momeni Takes Witness Stand In Brother's Murder Trial, Answers Questions About Drug Use
Top image: Khazar Elyassnia arrives for the arraignment of her brother Nima Momeni on May 18, 2023 in San Francisco, California. 38 year-old tech entrepreneur Nima Momeni was arraigned today in a San Francisco courtroom in connection with the stabbing murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee. Momeni pleaded not guilty to a murder charge. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)