Defendant Nima Momeni spars with prosecutor over details leading up to Bob Lee's death

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The defendant in the Bob Lee murder trial was back on the stand Thursday for continued cross-examination. Nima Momeni is accused of stabbing and killing Lee in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023.

Wednesday, he testified that Lee attacked him with a knife after he made a bad joke calling into question his priorities. Momeni doubled down Thursday on that "bad joke" being what set Bob Lee off and added some new surprising testimony, that when he learned of Bob Lee's stabbing death, he believed it was possible that someone else had an deadly altercation involving a knife with Bob after their altercation.

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Momeni testified when Bob Lee walked away from him in the early morning hours of April 4, he looked fine. Prosecutor Omid Talai demanded, "The way you made this deadly joke, tell it to us." Momeni repeated what he said Wednesday, that if it were his last night in town he would have spent it with his family instead of expletive around at strip clubs. As Talai demanded to know what Bob Lee said and did next, Momeni said that Lee said, are you calling me a bad expletive dad, expletive, I'm going to expletive you up. You don't think I can expletive you up right here? He said Lee circled him, then got in his face and pushed him. Momeni said Lee pulled a knife out and that he was afraid and had to control it. Over and over again, Talai asked how much time between the "dumb joke" and the knife coming out. Momeni could not say for certain. He also couldn't say why he ultimately threw the knife over the Caltrans fence, testifying, "At the time it made sense because he was walking away." While he testified early in the day, he thought maybe someone else had killed Bob Lee on April 4, he also testified he contacted attorneys after he learned of Lee's death on the 5th saying, "I wanted to be protected. I knew who he was."

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The prosecutor also revisited the text messages between Momeni and his sister and questioned why there was no text telling Khazar that Bob had attacked him. He also questioned a gap of two days in their texts after Bob's death. On re-direct, Momeni's defense attorney Saam Zangeneh showed jurors other times there had been gaps in the siblings' texts.

Several times during testimony on Thursday, Momeni sparred with Talai, at times asking him questions or saying things like, I'm sorry if my answer doesn't satisfy your expectations.

"You have seen Nima being aggressive on the stand, you've seen him trying to take control of this room like his arrogance and his entitlement are on full display here," said Bob Lee's brother, Oliver Lee.

Direct and cross-examination of Nima Momeni concluded. Jurors had so many questions for him, but the judge excused them until Monday morning so that she can review them with attorneys. Both sides will have a chance for additional questions once jurors questions have been answered.