In the Nima Momeni trial on Wednesday, the prosecution rolled out the grainy Nest camera footage they have had since early in the case, showing what appears to be the moment Momeni stabbed Bob Lee three times.
The trial of Nima Momeni resumed Wednesday after a delay — the trial was unable to proceed last Thursday due to a strike by clerks at San Francisco Superior Court, jurors typically have Fridays off, and it seems the judge decided to postpone until today. (It's not entirely clear, though, that the clerks won't strike again.)
NBC Bay Area had reported this morning that sister and key witness Khazar Momeni was expected to take the stand again today, but that appears to have been incorrect. Khazar Momeni had appeared to have wrapped up her testimony and was cross-examined and subject to re-direct last Wednesday, before more police department witnesses were called.
Today, prosecutors called Officer Milad Rashidian to the stand, as KRON4 reports. Rashidian was responsible for compiling all the surveillance video in the murder investigation, and he testified that the only video they were able to find through canvassing of the crime itself was one from a distance — actually from a residential building, up nine stories, over a block away.
The prosecutor asked Rashidian, per KRON4, "given how grainy it is," who much can be made out in the video. And Rashidian replied, "See a subject in white and a subject in black. The subject in white advances toward the subject in black three or four times."
The subject in white, police say, is Momeni, and Lee was dressed in black. These outfits can be seen in clearer video taken from the elevator and entry of Millennium Tower, when the two men exited shortly before the stabbing.
The video has has been a problem for the defense from the outset. Though it may be grainy, it connects the dots of the events that occurred, shows a lunging action, and appears to show Momeni discarding the knife on Caltrans property beneath the Bay Bridge, exactly where police later found it.
The defense's theory of the case is that Lee presented the knife, a Joseph Joseph-brand kitchen knife, and Momeni turned it on him, but it's not clear if this video will convince the jury otherwise.
During the afternoon on Wednesday, the jury heard testimony from several SFPD officers about the search they conducted of Khazar Momeni's condo, as well as her husband's condo unit, which is in a different part of Millennium Tower. As KTVU reports, SFPD Sgt. Thomas Moran testified that he opened a drawer in Khazar Momeni's kitchen and found a Joseph Joseph knife, and investigators believe the murder weapon came from the same set.
During her time on the witness stand, Khazar Momeni attempted to portray her brother as calm and even-keeled during the hours before the murder. Prosecutors may be letting her subsequent text message to Lee, about her brother coming down "wayyy hard" on him for the events of the day before, speak for itself.
Prosecutors argue that Nima Momeni stabbed Bob Lee in April 2022 out of anger for the perceived sexual mistreatment, or possible assault, of his sister at the apartment of Jeremy Boivin — a separate figure in this narrative who has been described as Lee's drug dealer, and with whom prosecutors say Khazar Momeni continues to have contact.
