Dateline NBC 2025 S02 E07
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00:00:00Tonight, on Dateline.
00:00:04I feel very inspired by my dad.
00:00:06He was such a good person.
00:00:11I realized I had missed calls.
00:00:14There was just a spit in my stomach.
00:00:17The doctor said we were not able to save him.
00:00:21I went blank.
00:00:22Are you telling me that Bob is dead?
00:00:25He's a prominent person in the tech world.
00:00:28A friend texted me to tell the police to check the footage of the Millennium Tower.
00:00:32It's a large, high-rise, a lot of people live there, and almost all of them have money.
00:00:38Yes.
00:00:39There's this glamorous spread in a magazine, and she's gorgeous.
00:00:44She and Bob hang around with each other.
00:00:46They're in that circle.
00:00:48Khazar puts the two of them on kind of a collision course.
00:00:53We have them getting into the elevator.
00:00:55I think he was out for blood that night.
00:00:57I felt my stomach drop.
00:01:01That is the most far-out story I've ever heard.
00:01:04A luxury high-rise full of the rich and famous, a murder on a dark street below, and a city
00:01:11holding its breath for answers.
00:01:13I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline.
00:01:25Here's Josh Mankiewicz with Under the Bay Bridge.
00:01:35April 4th, 2023, the 9-1-1 call came in around 2.30 a.m. from this lonely block on the streets
00:01:44of San Francisco.
00:01:49The man never gave his name.
00:01:51He had only one desperate plea for the operator on the other end of the line, and he kept
00:01:59repeating it.
00:02:02Security cameras captured the man as he staggered to the front of a luxury apartment building,
00:02:08grabbed onto the call box, and then fell to the pavement.
00:02:13He fumbled with his phone, and then somehow managed to get up and take a few more steps.
00:02:21Within a few minutes, officers arrived to find him unresponsive.
00:02:26Where you at, man?
00:02:27Where you at, man?
00:02:29They did CPR.
00:02:33The average adult male has about five quarts of blood.
00:02:38This guy had already parted ways with a lot of his.
00:02:50San Francisco has long been a destination for pioneers and explorers, up to and including
00:02:56the more modern gold rush of the digital age.
00:03:00Then as now, a place to stake your claim in the California dream.
00:03:06It's also a city where you can become both famous and infamous, and where success and
00:03:12failure get an equal amount of ink.
00:03:16So when fated fortune collided in the shadow of the Bay Bridge, people may have thought
00:03:22they knew what happened.
00:03:24Well, this was no ordinary crime, nor ordinary circumstances, and that man on the ground
00:03:33was no ordinary victim.
00:03:37San Francisco Police Sergeant Brent Dittmer got the call.
00:03:41And I figured, well, maybe this is going to be something minor.
00:03:46Didn't turn out to be minor.
00:03:47Not quite.
00:03:49Sergeant Dittmer went to the scene at the corner of Main Street and Harrison, in the
00:03:54Rincon Hill neighborhood of San Francisco.
00:03:56We just don't have a lot of call-outs to that area.
00:04:00It's not an area where there's a lot of violent crime.
00:04:03They knew where the victim had collapsed, who attacked him, and where.
00:04:08Still unknown.
00:04:09And you find a blood trail.
00:04:11That's right.
00:04:12Which points where?
00:04:14So the blood trail moves up this sidewalk along the building toward Harrison Street.
00:04:21He ends here, which means he came down here.
00:04:23That's right.
00:04:24There were some blood swipes on the building itself, but then it was blood drips that were
00:04:31moving down the sidewalk up towards Harrison Street.
00:04:34You can tell from the droplets the direction that the person was traveling.
00:04:39Yes.
00:04:40And as we get close to Harrison here, the blood drops went across the street over toward
00:04:47the west sidewalk.
00:04:50Uniformed officers followed that blood trail to this fence, about half a block from where
00:04:55the man collapsed.
00:04:57They scanned with flashlights, and then there it was.
00:05:01There's a knife over here.
00:05:03The knife was on the other side of a fence located near where this blood trail starts.
00:05:09And the area that was fenced off is a parking lot.
00:05:13That's probably your knife.
00:05:14Probably the knife.
00:05:15Blood on it?
00:05:16Yes.
00:05:17That blood was on the blade of this small paring knife, the blade only three and a half
00:05:23inches long, and the brand, Joseph Joseph.
00:05:28Police sent that to the crime lab, looking for a DNA sample.
00:05:33What's the time lag from when they log it in to when you actually get some kind of result
00:05:38back?
00:05:39Sometimes it's a couple of weeks, sometimes it's months, sometimes it's over a year.
00:05:43Down here?
00:05:44Detectives started knocking on doors.
00:05:46Maybe someone had seen or heard something.
00:05:49This is Main Street, after all, except the 9-1-1 call came in around 2.30 a.m.
00:05:56Witnesses?
00:05:57Not really.
00:05:59There was a homeless person that was contacted by the officers.
00:06:04That person had been released from the scene, and he didn't say that he saw, heard, or knew
00:06:10about anything that happened.
00:06:12Sergeant Dittmer's team began pulling videos from buildings around the area.
00:06:17Is that an area where there are a lot of cameras?
00:06:19There's some.
00:06:20There aren't as many as you'd like.
00:06:22There's never as many as you'd like.
00:06:24Never.
00:06:25And they're never as good as you want them to be.
00:06:28It was during the search for video that Dittmer got a call.
00:06:32The victim had been identified.
00:06:35We were notified that the victim was Bob Lee.
00:06:37You ever heard of Bob Lee before?
00:06:39No.
00:06:40What do you hear from the hospital about what his injuries were?
00:06:43I knew initially that he had been stabbed once in the right hip, and then there were
00:06:47two additional stab wounds on the left chest.
00:06:51One of those punctured his heart.
00:06:56So who was Bob Lee?
00:06:59And just as important, what brought him to that downtown street in the small hours of
00:07:04that April morning?
00:07:06My focus was just, let's figure out what happened here and who did it, and just get on that
00:07:12trail.
00:07:14That trail would lead to some strange places.
00:07:18That was a text that you got?
00:07:19Anonymous text.
00:07:20I fear that I will be stabbed too.
00:07:22To a slew of rumors.
00:07:25What is going on in San Francisco that, like, you know, this could happen?
00:07:29To some unforgettable characters.
00:07:31I mean, in San Francisco, you have money, but you don't wear your money.
00:07:36And she wears her money.
00:07:38And the family at the center of it all.
00:07:41She also just kind of seemed like she was there to help her brother however she could.
00:07:46All culminating in a trial about what really happened under the Bay Bridge.
00:07:53There's powers that are not normally in play when the decedent is the kind of person that
00:07:58Bob Lee is.
00:07:59Not a regular victim.
00:08:00We call it victim plus.
00:08:11The skies were still dark over San Francisco Bay when Krista Lee felt the first inkling.
00:08:23Something was just not right on that Tuesday morning in April.
00:08:27I woke up around 6.30 like I usually do.
00:08:30When I grabbed my phone, I realized I had missed calls.
00:08:34Three missed calls, in fact, all from the same unknown number.
00:08:38So she looked it up.
00:08:40It was San Francisco General Hospital.
00:08:43And I found that to be a little strange.
00:08:46Who's calling you from the hospital?
00:08:48Exactly.
00:08:49So then as I was taking Scout, our youngest, to school, I said, do me a favor.
00:08:54Check dad's location for me really quick.
00:08:57Dad was Bob Lee, divorced from Krista for years, but maintaining a close friendship
00:09:03and co-parenting relationship for their two children.
00:09:07I don't know why, but there was just this feeling, this pit in my stomach.
00:09:11And then Scout, 14 at the time, told her where the phone seemed to be located.
00:09:16It was at the police station.
00:09:19Specifically, the SFPD's Southern Station.
00:09:23I remember my stomach just like, like I felt nauseous, kind of, like I didn't know why.
00:09:32Krista reminded herself locating a phone that way was an inexact science.
00:09:37And besides, Bob was staying at a hotel nearby, since he'd recently relocated to Miami.
00:09:44I'm like, this is a little odd.
00:09:46I'm not going to let my overactive imagination take hold just yet.
00:09:50So Krista got on with the morning rush, dropped Scout off at school, and when she got home,
00:09:56she tried that missed number from the hospital.
00:10:00And the operator had said, oh, I'm so sorry, we were probably just verifying or confirming
00:10:04an appointment.
00:10:05And I thought, this is strange, I don't have appointments down there.
00:10:09So she sent Bob a text.
00:10:11Didn't hear back from him, which is very bizarre, because by 10 a.m., Bob is up and running.
00:10:16He would always text you back?
00:10:18Always, yeah.
00:10:19Either text, call, anything.
00:10:21We were always in contact with each other.
00:10:23So that's weird.
00:10:24It was very strange.
00:10:25By, you know, by 10, 11 a.m., I still had not heard from him.
00:10:28Krista did hear from someone else, a friend of Bob's.
00:10:31He's like, I'm supposed to take him to the airport, and he's not picking up his phone.
00:10:35I'm like, I know, he hasn't returned my messages either.
00:10:38The friend told Krista he'd go down to the police station just to check.
00:10:43And said, by any chance, is a guy by the name of Bob Lee here?
00:10:47And the woman said, are you family?
00:10:50That's never good when they ask that.
00:10:53And it wasn't good.
00:10:54The police told the friend Bob was at the hospital.
00:10:58And I jumped in the car with my boyfriend, and we sped as fast as we could down to the
00:11:03hospital.
00:11:04And every scenario at that time was going through my head.
00:11:06What?
00:11:07He's been mugged?
00:11:08Mugged, car accident, hit by a car, hit by a self-driving car in San Francisco.
00:11:14You know, every little scenario.
00:11:16So we get there, and they escorted us back into a private waiting room, which at that
00:11:21point, too, I felt very, almost just sick to my stomach.
00:11:25Like, what is going on here?
00:11:26Is he in a coma?
00:11:27That happened.
00:11:29And shortly after that, the nurse and the attending doctor walked in and said, are you
00:11:35Bob Lee's wife?
00:11:36He said, yes, I'm his former wife.
00:11:38And I said, well, I'm so sorry.
00:11:41We did everything we could, but we were not able to save him.
00:11:47Bob, she was told, had been fatally stabbed.
00:11:52He was 43.
00:11:54At that time, I just, I went blank.
00:11:56I stared at the doctor, like, are you telling me that Bob is dead?
00:12:01And it was in that moment that, you know, you almost fall to the floor.
00:12:10You don't think it's real.
00:12:12My whole body, I mean, just went flush.
00:12:15This is not real.
00:12:16And that's all I kept thinking was, you have the wrong person.
00:12:19This isn't real.
00:12:20I need to get home to the kids right now.
00:12:22Like, they're getting out of school.
00:12:23It's 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
00:12:24I need to go now.
00:12:27Krista rushed home to her children, Sirius, then 17, and Scout, who'd been taking an after-school
00:12:34nap.
00:12:35She's like, we're going to your sister's room.
00:12:37And I'm like, OK, what's happening?
00:12:39And that's when she breaks the news.
00:12:41I remember I thought that I was, like, still dreaming.
00:12:44Like, I really wished that I was.
00:12:48Sergeant Dittmer spoke with Bob's family.
00:12:51And when you say to Krista, is there some obvious suspect, she says...
00:12:55There wasn't.
00:12:57She didn't have any idea why this would happen.
00:12:59Hard to find people who didn't like Bob Lee?
00:13:02I can't think of anybody who said they didn't like Bob Lee.
00:13:06Now it was up to police to figure out if this was a random crime or whether someone in Bob's
00:13:13life would want to hurt him.
00:13:16Police were about to learn the late Bob Lee was no average guy.
00:13:36At first, police knew little about Bob Lee, the man stabbed to death in the shadow of
00:13:42San Francisco's Bay Bridge.
00:13:45Reporter Sergio Quintana covered the case for NBC Bay Area.
00:13:50San Francisco is an interesting city because you know you live in the tech world.
00:13:54But most residents don't know who these people are.
00:13:59But people in the tech industry knew who Bob Lee is.
00:14:02Soon, police were starting to learn what the tech world already knew.
00:14:08Bob Lee was a big deal.
00:14:11Bob was, I think, a very rare person in the tech world.
00:14:14He invented so many things.
00:14:17Bob's friends and former co-workers, Ajit Varma and Carlos Witt.
00:14:22He was building some of the best tools on the planet.
00:14:25You've probably heard of and maybe even used some of Bob's tools.
00:14:30He helped develop Android for Google.
00:14:33He founded the financial service Cash App.
00:14:35And he was a top executive at Square and MobileCoin, just to mention a few.
00:14:42Way beyond just what he created individually, he empowered so many other people to create
00:14:48amazing things.
00:14:49You must have been proud of him.
00:14:51Yeah, very, very proud of my brother.
00:14:53And he continually amazed me with things.
00:14:58Oliver Lee was Bob's younger brother by just 18 months.
00:15:02They grew up a world away from Silicon Valley, outside of St. Louis, Missouri.
00:15:08You can imagine, you know, two boys close in age.
00:15:10Growing up in the Midwest, we built a lot of forts in the woods.
00:15:14You know, we did everything together.
00:15:17Their dad, Rick Lee, an engineer, sparked an interest in technology.
00:15:22We wanted a computer, and so we bought a Tandy 1000 on time payments, because it was almost
00:15:29$3,000.
00:15:30He saw it as like an investment in us.
00:15:33And so we started messing around with that computer, and then we just built from there.
00:15:38And your parents encouraged this, because you're explorers.
00:15:41Absolutely.
00:15:42It's like, if they take it apart, they'll probably put it back together, right?
00:15:47By high school, Bob was creating computer games for his friends, and even programs for
00:15:52the school.
00:15:53He was their tech expert for the high school.
00:15:58Bob went to college, but not for long.
00:16:00The dot-com boom of the late 90s beckoned.
00:16:04He was at the breaking wave of tech.
00:16:06Yeah.
00:16:07He was in the wild west of many parts of tech, and he wanted to go solve problems on his
00:16:12own.
00:16:13In 2001, Bob first made a name for himself by solving a major problem.
00:16:19He developed a fix for a dangerous computer virus called Code Red.
00:16:25Oliver said his brother had big money offers to sell the software he had created.
00:16:31But instead of monetizing it, he just made it open source code, and basically gave it
00:16:36to the world for free, because that was the fastest way to be able to create the best
00:16:41good with it.
00:16:42Life was not all computers for Bob.
00:16:45Not long after Code Red, Bob met Krista.
00:16:49Bob made you feel, immediately, you could feel your worth.
00:16:53He was present in the conversation, just like you and I are right now.
00:16:56How did Bob talk about his work, and what he did for a living, and what he wanted to
00:17:01do?
00:17:02It wasn't work.
00:17:03It was his happiness.
00:17:04It was his happy place.
00:17:05He loved his work.
00:17:06He loved the opportunity to make the world a better place.
00:17:12Bob and Krista had their first child in 2005.
00:17:15A Star Trek-themed wedding followed, in Vegas.
00:17:20Honeymoon on Rigel 7?
00:17:21Exactly.
00:17:22Yep.
00:17:23Yep.
00:17:24Klingons only.
00:17:25Yeah, it was something that we did because it represented the two of us, rather than
00:17:31some Napa wedding with a bunch of guests that we could care less about.
00:17:36By 2008, they were a family of four.
00:17:40He didn't treat me like I was a little kid, even though, obviously, I'm this kid.
00:17:44He talked to me like I was an adult, and he taught me very valuable life lessons on being
00:17:50calm in conflict.
00:17:52Oh, he's so patient.
00:17:54Right?
00:17:55Yeah.
00:17:56He's a nice person.
00:17:57He had a very gentle parenting style.
00:17:59He was really nice, I want to say.
00:18:02It was just like that soft voice, gentle parenting kind of thing.
00:18:07Rock-a-bye baby.
00:18:09As the Lee family grew, so did Bob's influence in the tech world.
00:18:15Here he is at MobileCoin's 2021 conference.
00:18:19Before I joined as CPO last month, I was a MobileCoin advisor and investor.
00:18:24Financial success followed, and all that comes with it, lavish trips, VIP lounges,
00:18:31private parties.
00:18:32We would have parties or yacht parties.
00:18:35Private jets were not an unfamiliar thing.
00:18:38Oh, he definitely spoiled us.
00:18:39Oh, there is not a point where I was not living in a cush luxury life.
00:18:45Correct to say that money and success changed him, or it just allowed him to be who he always
00:18:49would have been?
00:18:50It gave him freedom to be more of who he was.
00:18:53And so I do not think it changed him.
00:18:56After 10 years of marriage, Bob and Krista split up.
00:19:00Generally, divorce in America equals friction of some kind.
00:19:05Sure.
00:19:06But not here.
00:19:07No.
00:19:08No.
00:19:09It actually, I think he and I became more loving towards each other.
00:19:13We had a whole newfound respect for each other.
00:19:16In 2022, Bob moved to Miami, but made frequent trips back to San Francisco to be with his
00:19:22kids.
00:19:23In fact, when he was killed, Bob had come to San Francisco to see Scout perform in a
00:19:30school play.
00:19:32It's difficult for her to talk about.
00:19:33Because that was the last time I ever saw him.
00:19:39Now Bob's family was talking with investigators and learning more about his final minutes.
00:19:46On those security videos from near the crime scene, police found something heartbreaking.
00:19:52Moments after he's been stabbed, Bob approaches a car stopped at a red light, and it looks
00:19:58like he's asking for help.
00:20:01Instead, the person drives off, and a badly wounded Bob drops to the ground.
00:20:10There's video of him, which you've probably seen.
00:20:14Actually no.
00:20:15I can't bring myself to watch it yet.
00:20:17It is tough to watch, because he is stumbling down the street.
00:20:22He's clearly been hurt.
00:20:24My son watched the footage, and his response to me was, it only showed me how strong my
00:20:30father was.
00:20:32That it looked like he was trying to survive whatever had happened to him.
00:20:38And I trust his opinion on that one.
00:20:41Any evidence that would have made any difference if somebody had picked him up and taken him
00:20:44to the hospital?
00:20:45As far as surviving?
00:20:47No, I don't think so.
00:20:50In life, Bob Lee's name was once known primarily to tech insiders.
00:20:56Now in death, he was about to achieve a whole new level of notoriety.
00:21:02Elon Musk is talking about it and saying, calling you out specifically.
00:21:07Yes.
00:21:16Crystal Lee was stunned.
00:21:25The father of her two children was gone.
00:21:28It was unreal.
00:21:29It felt like I was in a dream.
00:21:31It wasn't true.
00:21:32Especially the way that he was taken from us.
00:21:34It just did not seem like it was reality.
00:21:37When you hear about Bob, you hear words like, you know, brilliant, innovator, visionary,
00:21:43selfless, right?
00:21:45Murder.
00:21:47Not one of them.
00:21:48No.
00:21:49I mean, that just seems inconceivable.
00:21:51I mean, I think murder is always the last thing you expect.
00:21:55Police in San Francisco are investigating the stabbing death of Bob Lee.
00:21:59His death sent shockwaves through the tech industry.
00:22:02News of Bob Lee's death made national headlines.
00:22:06Police are trying to solve a murder mystery.
00:22:09It happened early Tuesday morning.
00:22:11Especially when that dramatic video of his collapse outside the apartment building became
00:22:17public.
00:22:18It is just one of the latest high profile crimes.
00:22:21It's increased safety concerns around the San Francisco area.
00:22:27Reporter Sergio Quintana said many believed Bob's death was a symptom of a bigger issue
00:22:33in Bob's beloved San Francisco.
00:22:37In the midst of the pandemic, the city of San Francisco went through some changes like
00:22:42many cities in the United States.
00:22:45There is street crime.
00:22:47People get mugged.
00:22:48People get attacked sometimes in the streets.
00:22:51And that was the perception of San Francisco at the time, that this was a dangerous city.
00:22:56And this crime exacerbated that perception.
00:23:01Even Elon Musk joined the discussion about Bob Lee's murder, writing,
00:23:06Violent crime in San Francisco is horrific.
00:23:09And even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately.
00:23:14Although that clearly was not true.
00:23:17It made an impact.
00:23:19The attention on this case was immediate.
00:23:23And you know, for someone like Elon Musk to post this, he had just bought Twitter and
00:23:29had just come to San Francisco to run that company.
00:23:33In the post, Musk mentioned District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, who had recently taken office.
00:23:39Elon Musk is talking about it and calling you out specifically.
00:23:43Yes, he was basically saying that it was because of lawlessness in our city and a need to prosecute
00:23:49repeat offenders and tagging me in that tweet.
00:23:52At that point, nothing was known about who killed Bob Lee, whether it was a repeat offender
00:23:58or whether it was a person living on the street or whether it was something else.
00:24:03Nothing publicly had been disclosed as far as the investigation.
00:24:07He had no information about that crime.
00:24:09So, you know, it's just kind of ratcheting up the attention for this case.
00:24:13With all that attention on Bob's death, his friend Ajit was left angry and shocked.
00:24:20How could this be allowed to happen?
00:24:22Like, what is going on in San Francisco that like, you know, this could happen?
00:24:28And just like you come to like these conclusions.
00:24:31What's the world coming to?
00:24:32What's the world coming to? Yeah.
00:24:33And so, you know, it's like a lot of like anger.
00:24:36Like, you know, this is a great person getting taken away from us that didn't deserve this.
00:24:41Krista knew Bob would never put himself in a dangerous situation.
00:24:46That made his murder even more puzzling.
00:24:50The main thing that people were saying was, oh, he must have gotten mugged.
00:24:54He was walking back home to his hotel.
00:24:56That one I did not believe because Bob never walked anywhere.
00:24:59He would have ubered, especially at that time.
00:25:02You ever worry about him working in San Francisco and on downtown?
00:25:06Never, not at all.
00:25:07Had Bob been approached by someone that was trying to mug him, he would have given him,
00:25:12you know, them the shirt off his back, his wallet, his keys, his clothes.
00:25:17He would have said, hey, man, let me buy you a meal.
00:25:20Please don't hurt me.
00:25:21Sergeant Brent Dittmer was sure from early on that the person who stabbed Bob to death
00:25:27wasn't after his money.
00:25:29There was a lot of talk that, you know, this is random, violent,
00:25:32homeless crime in San Francisco.
00:25:35Could that have happened when we first get here?
00:25:38Maybe.
00:25:39But very quickly, it really doesn't appear to be the case.
00:25:42And he's still got his watch and his wallet.
00:25:44He does.
00:25:45And if that's the story people are going to run with,
00:25:48that is an advantage for us because the people who are responsible,
00:25:52we don't want to know what we know.
00:25:54So you leave the robbery story out there,
00:25:56even though you know right here that's probably not it.
00:26:00Let everybody think that this is whatever's on Twitter at that time.
00:26:05We'll work on what actually happened.
00:26:07The idea of a mugging didn't seem plausible to you,
00:26:10but Bob being targeted, that's even harder to believe.
00:26:15Yes.
00:26:16Yeah, we were all confused.
00:26:18Confused and scared.
00:26:21Especially after Krista received a mysterious text message.
00:26:25I heard that you were talking to the police.
00:26:28Please tell them to check the footage of the Millennium Tower.
00:26:31I'd like to remain anonymous.
00:26:33I fear that I will be stabbed too.
00:26:46Bob's impact was discussed in all corners of Silicon Valley.
00:26:50You have layers of processors and ISOs.
00:26:53In the tech world and beyond.
00:26:59As his family and friends gathered for memorial services.
00:27:04Carlos Witt attended the service in San Francisco.
00:27:08He was a member of the National Security Council.
00:27:11Carlos Witt attended the service in San Francisco.
00:27:15People were talking about Bob, stories, crying, etc.
00:27:18But you could feel the absence of Bob everywhere.
00:27:25And walking around and it was, you know, it was a beautiful party.
00:27:30And it was, again, beautiful to see everybody, but.
00:27:32But somebody wasn't there.
00:27:33It wasn't just like the minus one person.
00:27:35It felt like it was minus like a thousand people.
00:27:38With one person not being there.
00:27:40I'll record myself too, I got myself.
00:27:44He just made people feel so amazing.
00:27:46Are you going to send this to mom?
00:27:48Yeah.
00:27:49And he knew just how to help people.
00:27:51Like he was so charismatic and he just like knew how to like
00:27:55solve any issue that he came across.
00:27:57His brother Oliver caught a glimpse of Bob's generosity
00:28:01as he handled Bob's finances after his death.
00:28:04Constantly you see him helping somebody else.
00:28:07There was a investment in a hair salon and another investment in a restaurant.
00:28:11These were not investments he expected to get back.
00:28:14And so it was more of I met this cool person who's doing this cool thing.
00:28:18How can I help them to do that?
00:28:19And the answer was, I'm going to give them some money and I probably won't get anything for it.
00:28:23Yeah, well, I know I won't get anything for it, right?
00:28:25Except the feeling that I helped somebody.
00:28:27Yeah.
00:28:28Now investigators were trying to figure out why anyone would want Bob dead.
00:28:34They had already dug up a possible lead from that security video they pulled at the crime scene.
00:28:40On it, you can see a white car.
00:28:43From some of the angles, yeah, you could tell it was a white BMW Roadster.
00:28:48In another video where Bob lifts up his shirt maybe to see how badly he's wounded,
00:28:55there's the white car again in the background.
00:28:58You'll see behind him this vehicle pull away from the scene,
00:29:01a vehicle that we determined was this white BMW Z4, a small coupe.
00:29:09In other videos, police saw what looked like the same white car speeding away from the area.
00:29:16They were able to follow the car as it got onto the Bay Bridge.
00:29:21Then they lost sight of it.
00:29:24Had the driver seen something or was the driver involved?
00:29:29Can't get a license number.
00:29:31No.
00:29:31But you start looking for that car on other cameras of other buildings.
00:29:36Yes.
00:29:37Sort of backtracing where it came from.
00:29:39Yes.
00:29:40How many other angles of that car do you get along its trip?
00:29:43Probably six or seven.
00:29:45Can you tell who's inside?
00:29:47No.
00:29:48Then they got a break.
00:29:49A friend of Bob's told police that on the night he died,
00:29:53Bob might have gone to a luxury high-rise called Millennium Tower.
00:29:58Everybody in San Francisco knows the Millennium Tower.
00:30:01I think so.
00:30:01It's famous or infamous, maybe.
00:30:03Well, I think the short version is a large luxury high-rise apartment building.
00:30:08Like as luxury as it gets.
00:30:10Yeah, yeah.
00:30:11I think it was famous first because Joe Montana was living there
00:30:15and then it became famous because it started tilting.
00:30:19For years, the 58-story high-rise has been plagued by structural issues
00:30:24that caused it to lean and sink,
00:30:26sparking countless lawsuits from its wealthy residents.
00:30:31A lot of units in that building.
00:30:32A lot of people live there and almost all of them have money.
00:30:35Yes.
00:30:37It was the same building mentioned in that alarming text to Krista.
00:30:42I heard that you were talking to the police.
00:30:44I fear that I will be stabbed too.
00:30:46Without saying who it was they feared, the texter provided Krista Lee a clue.
00:30:53Please tell them to check the footage of the Millennium Tower.
00:30:57That was exactly what police were doing.
00:31:00And fortunately, the Millennium Tower had security cameras, lots of them.
00:31:05Sergeant Dittmer sent an investigator to pull that footage for any sign of Bob.
00:31:11Right away, they saw something interesting from a camera outside the building.
00:31:15We saw a white BMW that matched the white BMW that was seen driving away from the scene of the
00:31:23killing. We run the plate and the BMW is registered to Nima Momeni.
00:31:29Nima Momeni.
00:31:31Police now focused on him.
00:31:34There was just one problem.
00:31:37Is there any evidence that Nima and Bob even knew each other before that evening?
00:31:41Not really, no.
00:31:42And that's where Kazar comes into play in all of this.
00:32:02Speculation about Bob Lee's murder continued to dominate the headlines.
00:32:07What wasn't on the news was that police now had a name to go on.
00:32:12Nima Momeni.
00:32:14It was still unclear how Nima fit into their case.
00:32:18So Sergeant Dittmer decided to put off talking with him.
00:32:22My first plan at this point is to figure out who this Nima Momeni is.
00:32:27We didn't want to go into the Millennium Tower and start knocking on doors or anything like that
00:32:31because we don't want to tip anybody off at what is really a pretty early stage of this investigation.
00:32:37And maybe you're not on the right track here.
00:32:39That's possible.
00:32:41When you run him, ask people about him, learn more about him,
00:32:45what picture emerges of Nima Momeni?
00:32:48Nima Momeni has a consulting tech business.
00:32:53He lives over in the East Bay.
00:32:55He's in the same business broadly as Bob Lee, but he's way down in the food chain below Bob.
00:33:01Yeah.
00:33:01I mean, if you could say tech is the same business, they're in the same business.
00:33:05I don't think they're in any way kind of on the same level.
00:33:08Yeah.
00:33:09Investigators would learn Nima was born in Iran, and at 14,
00:33:13he moved to the Bay Area with his mother and his sister, Kazar, his mother, Manaz Tehrani.
00:33:21How did your son adjust to moving to the United States?
00:33:24Both my kids, they were so strong.
00:33:27And we decided when we were leaving Iran, we accepted all the difficulties we're going to face.
00:33:38What about your daughter?
00:33:39The same.
00:33:40She was hardworking.
00:33:43She started working at a very young age, at the age of 13 when we came here.
00:33:48Manaz says she and the kids all worked hard and scraped by.
00:33:53It all seemed to pay off.
00:33:55By 2023, Nima and his family appeared to be doing pretty well.
00:34:01He had a nice white BMW.
00:34:04He had a couple boats.
00:34:05He was talking about buying a ranch.
00:34:07Eleni Balakrishnan is a criminal justice reporter for the news site Mission Local,
00:34:13who did some digging on Nima.
00:34:15People described him as being extremely generous and well-off.
00:34:18He had a nice loft in Emeryville, where he lived as well.
00:34:21His personality?
00:34:23Quiet, low-key.
00:34:25People thought he was kind of aloof.
00:34:27He was kind of a timid guy.
00:34:29He would be out, but wasn't necessarily the center of the party or anything.
00:34:33For all the information investigators gathered on Nima, one thing was missing.
00:34:39Is there any evidence that Nima and Bob even knew each other before that evening?
00:34:43Not really, no.
00:34:44If this involves Nima and Bob, that seems maybe off a little bit, because these guys
00:34:49aren't friends.
00:34:50They're not in business together.
00:34:51They don't even really know each other.
00:34:52They don't.
00:34:53And, you know, that's where Kazar comes into play in all of this.
00:34:57Kazar, Nima's younger sister.
00:35:00The two were about a year apart, and by all accounts, extremely close.
00:35:05Your son and your daughter have always got along really well.
00:35:08Yes.
00:35:09Is your son protective of your daughter?
00:35:11My son, very supportive.
00:35:13Yes, very supportive of her since day one, you know, since they were little kids.
00:35:20Nima and his sister spent a lot of time together.
00:35:23And if Nima was fairly muted, Kazar was anything but.
00:35:28Reporter Sergio Quintana.
00:35:30Kazar Momeni probably stands out because she's pretty glamorous.
00:35:34I mean, in San Francisco, again, you have money, but you don't wear your money.
00:35:40And she wears her money.
00:35:43Kazar is also married to Dino Eliasnia, a top plastic surgeon in the Bay Area.
00:35:50There's this glamorous spread in a San Francisco magazine of her and her husband
00:35:56Dino, who they're like being photographed in this sky-rise apartment,
00:36:01you know, overlooking the city.
00:36:03And she's glamorous and gorgeous.
00:36:07Investigators soon discovered that while Bob didn't know Nima,
00:36:11he knew Kazar and knew her quite well.
00:36:15The two seemed to run in the same social circles.
00:36:19They'd met about eight years earlier at the Battery,
00:36:22an exclusive social club in San Francisco.
00:36:25Definitely friendly acquaintances, you know,
00:36:28talked, texted back and forth about hanging out together, things like that.
00:36:32We know that she's a bit of a party girl.
00:36:35She and Bob Lee hang around with each other.
00:36:37They're in that circle of people who live in these
00:36:40gorgeous high-rise towers in downtown San Francisco.
00:36:44It was Kazar Momeni, not Nima, who lived in the glitzy Millennium Tower.
00:36:49Police discovered she and her husband lived in separate apartments on separate floors.
00:36:54That living arrangement appeared to mirror their lifestyle and their marriage.
00:37:00Kazar's married, but she doesn't live with her husband.
00:37:02That's right.
00:37:02And they have some kind of open marriage?
00:37:06I don't know.
00:37:07It certainly seems clear that they know that she sees other people.
00:37:13That's been described as an open marriage.
00:37:16That's been described as an open marriage.
00:37:18Yeah, I don't know how to describe that, but
00:37:24yeah, her husband was, I think they were open-minded in some ways.
00:37:32Had Bob somehow gotten into the middle of Kazar and Dino's marriage?
00:37:37He and Kazar clearly had a relationship.
00:37:40Whether this was some sort of love triangle remained unclear.
00:37:44On the onset, I think some people might have
00:37:47been assuming that there was something more going on beyond just friendship.
00:37:51I mean, there's a handsome guy and there's this glamorous woman,
00:37:54and they're hanging around with each other at these parties.
00:37:56I think that was kind of an easy assumption to make.
00:38:00For detectives, it all felt like a possible motive.
00:38:03Did you have any suspicions as to whether or not Kazar might be involved in this?
00:38:07I did.
00:38:07You know, certainly that's on the table.
00:38:10We know that Bob knew her and, you know, didn't seem to know Mima as far as we knew.
00:38:17Turns out, Kazar and Bob had been together just hours before he died.
00:38:23Kazar Momeni had spent time with Bob the day before the killing.
00:38:28She was at a party that included Bob, some friends, and some pharmaceuticals.
00:38:34It was not uncommon for Bob to use drugs.
00:38:36On the weekends, after his work was all completed, yeah, he enjoyed himself.
00:38:41Soon, the investigation would follow a trail of drugs,
00:38:45blood, and anger, and it would lead to a suspect, a shocking video.
00:38:50Up until that point, we didn't think we were going to have any video of the killing.
00:38:54So having something was very significant.
00:38:57And a high-profile trial.
00:39:00Kazar's testimony was the most awaited part of the trial.
00:39:05There were cameras everywhere.
00:39:26Silicon Valley has a reputation.
00:39:29Among its success stories lies also a culture of extremes.
00:39:35Some people can code hard and play hard at a level.
00:39:38Carlos Witt said his friend Bob Lee was at a much higher level.
00:39:44It would not be weird for us to put a 100-hour weekend
00:39:48on a regular basis and sometimes string weeks and weeks together.
00:39:53So I think one of the ways that you can do that is that sometimes you need to
00:39:57also play hard as well to try to balance your life out.
00:39:59And sometimes playing hard is staying up all night shooting pool or playing Nintendo.
00:40:05Something harmless.
00:40:06It's like Wii tennis until like 5 in the morning.
00:40:09Bob was just built different because he could do the parties,
00:40:15but he would also be one of the number one engineers in the entire planet.
00:40:19Police learned that sometimes, maybe frequently, that partying involved drugs.
00:40:27Bob was part of this scene with this array of substances,
00:40:33the alphabet of drugs, K and E and G and cocaine.
00:40:39Yes, he did partake in parties and drugs,
00:40:41but he was never the kind of guy that would get out of control.
00:40:44And you never thought to yourself, you're making a big mistake?
00:40:48No, no, because I never saw drug use as being abused or an addiction.
00:40:54However, his brother Oliver says he did worry about Bob's chemically fueled adventures.
00:41:02He was self-medicating.
00:41:04There's this narrative of Bob being this super successful guy,
00:41:08but if you knew him, you knew he had self-doubt and he had anxiety.
00:41:13Police discovered Bob spent his last days balancing the scales of work and fun
00:41:20with a small circle of friends.
00:41:23I got a phone call from someone who played a large part in the case,
00:41:27Mr. Moazabi, who said that he had been spending time with Mr. Lee the evening before his death.
00:41:34And during that conversation, he mentioned Kazaar Momani.
00:41:39Bob's friend, Bo Moazabi, is a tech entrepreneur and DJ.
00:41:45According to Bo, he and Kazaar were with Bob at a small afternoon get-together.
00:41:51Their host was a guy named Jeremy Boivin.
00:41:55Who's Jeremy Boivin?
00:41:56Jeremy Boivin is a friend of Bob Lee, who is also his drug dealer.
00:42:03Bob and I met a few years back.
00:42:05We vacationed together.
00:42:07Really got pretty close.
00:42:09Jeremy was convicted of drug dealing in 2022.
00:42:14He didn't want to talk with me about that,
00:42:16but he did talk about that get-together with Bo, Bob and Kazaar.
00:42:21I ordered some pizzas.
00:42:24We partied a little bit.
00:42:26Some of them partied with alcohol, cocaine and nitrous oxide, also known as whippets.
00:42:33To the uninitiated, that being me, what's a whippet?
00:42:37Nitrous oxide canister used to whip cream or get high if you snort the gas out of it.
00:42:44Were you aware that Bob was on drugs?
00:42:47Yeah, I did part of Bob's friend.
00:42:48I had a good time.
00:42:49Yeah, I did part of Bob's friend.
00:42:50I had a good time.
00:42:51He was off work.
00:42:52It was not uncommon for Bob to use drugs?
00:42:55On the weekends, after his work was all completed, yeah, he enjoyed himself.
00:42:59What was Kazaar's relationship with Bob?
00:43:01I knew that they were friends for the past few years,
00:43:04on and off again, just seeing each other casually.
00:43:06Nothing sexual, just actual friendship.
00:43:09And that day, Jeremy says he felt a connection with Kazaar.
00:43:14She has some pretty captivating qualities, not just her physical looks,
00:43:20but at times she can be pretty funny and fun to hang out with.
00:43:26After an hour or so, Bo told police that Kazaar stayed at Jeremy's while he and Bob left.
00:43:34Here they are in the elevator.
00:43:35It looks as though they wanted to continue the party together.
00:43:40Their next stop was the bar at Bob's hotel.
00:43:43And later, up to his room, where they started calling family and friends.
00:43:49The last time I spoke to him, I had missed a FaceTime call.
00:43:53And so I called him back, and he was with our friend Bo.
00:43:56And it was just sweet and loving, you know,
00:43:58hey baby, talking about you, miss you, come meet up with us.
00:44:01And at this point in time, it was already about eight o'clock at night.
00:44:05And the last words that we actually spoke to each other were, I love you, good night.
00:44:11From Bo, police learned Bob got another call later.
00:44:15This one from Nima.
00:44:17Bo is a witness to Bob's side of that conversation.
00:44:20Correct.
00:44:21And what he hears is Bob defending himself or
00:44:25trying to calm down someone who's clearly pretty upset.
00:44:28That's right.
00:44:29What sort of things does Bo overhear?
00:44:32Bo overhears Bob telling Nima that nothing happened, everything's okay,
00:44:39he wasn't there, but, you know, everything's fine.
00:44:43Bo told police Nima was upset with Bob.
00:44:46It wasn't clear why.
00:44:49Bo said they moved on after the call, stopping for drinks at the Battery Club,
00:44:54and then to Bo's condo.
00:44:56By then, it was after midnight, and Bo was ready to call it a night.
00:45:02Bob didn't want the party to end.
00:45:06Bo said that he thought Bob was going to go see Kazar, who lives at the Millennium Tower.
00:45:12By then, Kazar had left Jeremy's and was back home.
00:45:18Investigators dug frame by frame through video from the Millennium Tower,
00:45:23eventually finding the moment Bob arrived, just after 12.30 a.m.
00:45:30Then, a little more than an hour later, Bob left.
00:45:34And this time, he wasn't alone.
00:45:37There's Nima Momeni next to him, wearing a black beanie.
00:45:43It's a little weird watching the two of them walk out of the Millennium Tower together.
00:45:48Yeah, it's always strange to watch someone's last moments on a video.
00:45:53And there was more.
00:45:55The two men did not go their separate ways when they left Kazar's apartment.
00:46:00Investigators found this video of them getting into Nima's white BMW.
00:46:05A clearer picture of what happened that night was starting to emerge.
00:46:10That first moment, we want to make sure Nima's the person who drove
00:46:14Bob to where this killing happened, and, you know,
00:46:16we're trying to kind of piece everything together right then.
00:46:19It was time for police to start tailing Nima Momeni.
00:46:23What that surveillance would capture on video would shift the course of this investigation.
00:46:28I think he's showing exactly what he did.
00:46:44Police were one step closer to figuring out what had happened to Bob Lee.
00:46:50Bob's friend, Bo, is the one who really ends up pointing you guys in the right direction.
00:46:53That's a huge part of this case, yes.
00:46:56That interview sets us on the path.
00:46:58He tells you who the players are.
00:46:59He did.
00:47:00And he's the first person to identify somebody who didn't like Bob, and it was Nima.
00:47:05Right.
00:47:07That phone call Bo witnessed one end of, coupled with the video evidence connecting Nima to Bob,
00:47:13had turned Nima Momeni into the prime suspect.
00:47:18Investigators still were not ready to bring him in for questioning.
00:47:23They did put a tail on Nima.
00:47:26What form does that surveillance take?
00:47:28You're following him, or you've got a tracker on his car, or what?
00:47:31Combination of things.
00:47:33So initially, I write a warrant to put a tracker on his car.
00:47:39We go to his house, try and find this white BMW, which we don't see anywhere.
00:47:45We see a different vehicle that's registered to him, and officers start following Mr. Momeni.
00:47:50And what's he doing?
00:47:51They see him in a parking lot, and he's talking with someone we later learn is a private investigator.
00:48:00Nima's on the right here.
00:48:02Keep in mind, he had not been interviewed, arrested, or charged with any crime,
00:48:08but he had already retained a criminal defense attorney.
00:48:12As he spoke with his lawyer's PI, the undercover officer tailing him hit record.
00:48:19What do you see in that video?
00:48:20I think I see him pantomiming, stabbing Mr. Lee.
00:48:24That's Nima showing somebody else what he did.
00:48:27It is.
00:48:29Remember, Bob was stabbed twice in the chest.
00:48:33On the video, police believe Nima makes some stabbing motions toward the PI's torso.
00:48:41Then Nima does this.
00:48:43To investigators, he seemed to be demonstrating how to throw the murder weapon over that fence.
00:48:51A suspect reenacting the crime for your surveillance is something that doesn't happen every day.
00:48:56That was a first for me, yeah.
00:48:59It was all suggestive, but would it be enough to convince a jury or the DA?
00:49:06We wanted to make sure that at the point at which Momeni was arrested that we did
00:49:11have a solid case, and so we asked that the San Francisco police
00:49:15make sure that they collected every ounce of evidence that they could prior to that.
00:49:20And they did find some more evidence.
00:49:24In this case, we were able to see texts on Bob's phone.
00:49:30Specifically, messages Kazar sent to Bob hours after he left her home that night.
00:49:37Just wanted to make sure you're doing okay, because I know Nima came way down hard on you,
00:49:43and thank you for being such a classy man handling it with class.
00:49:47Bob Lee's phone received those texts.
00:49:50We know Bob never read them.
00:49:53These are texts that Kazar sends to Bob not knowing he's already dead.
00:49:56That's right.
00:49:57So I think at that point, we knew Bob has left the Millennium Tower and gone to the
00:50:03place where he's killed with Nima.
00:50:05And then we have Kazar sending Bob messages that her brother came down way hard on him
00:50:10the night before.
00:50:11At that point, I felt comfortable and said, okay, it's time to arrest this guy.
00:50:16Nine days after Bob's murder, SWAT officers arrived at Nima's condo outside San Francisco
00:50:23to make the arrest and execute a search warrant.
00:50:28So simultaneous to that, we served warrants at Kazar Momeni's apartment and her husband
00:50:35Dino's apartment at the Millennium Tower.
00:50:38I'm looking for Joseph Joseph Knives, and I was also seeking to speak with Kazar and
00:50:44or Dino to see if they would give up any kind of an interview with us.
00:50:49How willing were Kazar and her husband to speak with you?
00:50:52Kazar said that we had to speak with her attorney, and Dino refused to even provide his name
00:50:58to the officers searching the apartment.
00:51:01In that search, police did find a Joseph Joseph Knife in Kazar's kitchen, the same brand
00:51:08as the murder weapon.
00:51:10You think Nima takes that knife from Kazar's kitchen and carries it with him when he leaves
00:51:14the apartment with Bob, and his plan is to stab Bob?
00:51:17I believe that's the case, yes.
00:51:19We start out with our breaking news out of San Francisco.
00:51:21A person accused of fatally stabbing local tech executive Bob Lee is under arrest.
00:51:26The stabbing was not random, and the killer apparently knew Lee.
00:51:33When you heard there was an arrest, you feel better?
00:51:36Yes, absolutely.
00:51:38I was very relieved at the arrest because at least we knew we were going to start getting
00:51:42answers.
00:51:43I was shocked.
00:51:45I was shocked.
00:51:46I didn't know what to do.
00:51:49I became like a dead person walking.
00:51:55I'm sorry.
00:51:58You want to stop a second?
00:52:02Yeah, I...
00:52:05There's nothing harder, is there?
00:52:07Yeah, it was very, very difficult.
00:52:11The thing that still eluded police was any clear motive.
00:52:16Why would Nima want Bob dead?
00:52:19When you arrest Nima, what's your theory of the crime?
00:52:22The theory is he's upset with Bob over something that happened with his sister.
00:52:27We don't know exactly why.
00:52:28We don't know exactly what happened.
00:52:30Kazar is sort of the engine that made this whole thing happen.
00:52:34Kazar's relationship with her brother and her relationship with Bob is what puts the
00:52:38two of them on kind of a collision course.
00:52:55It had been a year and a half since Bob Lee was stabbed to death under the Bay Bridge.
00:53:00Now, Nima Momeni, a man who barely knew Bob, was about to stand trial for his murder.
00:53:06He pleaded not guilty.
00:53:08We thought it was going to be a difficult case for various reasons.
00:53:13Cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom in which prosecutors Omid Talai and Dane Reinstadt
00:53:19would present their case.
00:53:22The one person who can truthfully tell us what happened isn't with us.
00:53:28There's no live eyewitnesses.
00:53:30There's no witness so that allows the defendant and the defense to tell any type of fantastical
00:53:37story they can come up with.
00:53:39Prosecutors argued this was simple.
00:53:42Nima Momeni was the last person to see Bob Lee before he was stabbed.
00:53:48And they had plenty of security video to prove their case.
00:53:52We have them on great surveillance getting into the elevator at the Millennium,
00:53:56walking through the lobby, walking out to Nima Momeni's car.
00:54:01Either Nima is aware that there are cameras and he's concealing how furious he is at Bob,
00:54:05or he wasn't furious at Bob yet.
00:54:08Correct.
00:54:08He quite possibly was very furious.
00:54:14Prosecutors first played that 911 call.
00:54:19In court, that was a painful moment for Bob's family.
00:54:23They had never heard that call before.
00:54:26The 911 call just keeps like ringing in my head.
00:54:29Being so in shock that he can't say anything else.
00:54:32He just keeps repeating over and over again.
00:54:38Where are you stabbed, man?
00:54:40And they played for jurors that body cam video,
00:54:43showing officers trying to revive a close to lifeless Bob Lee.
00:54:48Nima Momeni is driving home in his nice BMW and hoping to go on with his life like nothing ever
00:54:55happened.
00:54:56One question, had Nima's sister and mother helped him go on with his life?
00:55:01That's because in those first few days, police were not able to find that white BMW.
00:55:08We eventually found the car about a month later at a BMW dealership where his family
00:55:15was attempting to sell it on his behalf.
00:55:17You think this is the family trying to help him dispose of evidence?
00:55:20I feel confident this is one of many ways in which the family was trying to help him.
00:55:26Then jurors watched that undercover police video of Nima speaking with his attorney's
00:55:31private investigator.
00:55:32The court required Nima's mouth to be blurred so the jury couldn't try to make out the conversation.
00:55:39I've never had a piece of evidence where a suspect is reenacting his or her crime.
00:55:47Beyond the reenacting, prosecutors believed they had a powerful piece of evidence,
00:55:53video of the actual killing.
00:55:56It's low quality.
00:55:57Police recovered it from a building right across from the crime scene.
00:56:02You see two figures and we are able to make out who those two figures are
00:56:07given the color of the clothing Bob and Nima Momeni are wearing in the elevator.
00:56:13There they are at the bottom of the screen.
00:56:15It's hard to make out so we put a spotlight on them.
00:56:18Prosecutors believe the darker figure is Bob.
00:56:22The lighter one is Nima.
00:56:24Talai says the video shows Nima lunging forward toward Bob
00:56:29and then throwing the knife over the fence to dispose of it.
00:56:34That video is pretty blurry.
00:56:35That's an understatement.
00:56:37You're confident that that's Bob and that's Nima?
00:56:40I'm confident given that the car that we see the two of them get into
00:56:46is perfectly tracked to that exact location of the incident.
00:56:50While prosecutors argued the videos placed Nima at the scene,
00:56:54the backbone of their case was the forensics.
00:56:57Those DNA tests ordered on the knife had come back.
00:57:0199% of the DNA from that handle comes back to Nima Momeni.
00:57:08From the blade of that knife, it comes back to Bob Lee.
00:57:12The state is not required to prove motive,
00:57:14but prosecutors wanted to address the burning question.
00:57:18Why would Nima want to kill Bob?
00:57:22Kazar, how do you feel about testifying today?
00:57:24To answer that, they called Kazar Momeni, Bob's friend and the defendant's sister.
00:57:32Kazar's testimony was the most awaited part of the trial.
00:57:37There were cameras everywhere.
00:57:39Reporter Eleni Balakrishnan was in the courtroom.
00:57:42She's very well dressed.
00:57:45She showed up in court and was the star of the show.
00:57:49The cameras would be following her.
00:57:51She's dressed in all Valentino and wears these big sunglasses to cover her eyes.
00:57:57Through a subpoena, Kazar was forced to testify against her own brother.
00:58:02It was clear she did not want to be there.
00:58:05She was very soft spoken.
00:58:07She kind of looked down a lot of the time.
00:58:10Because Kazar refused to give a formal statement to police,
00:58:14prosecutors were not sure exactly what she would testify to in court.
00:58:20They hoped she would talk about that party at Jeremy Boivin's place, and she did.
00:58:25She told jurors she was high on LSD, cocaine and nitrous oxide.
00:58:31After Bob left, Jeremy gave her GHB, known as a date rape drug, and she willingly took it.
00:58:39Then, Kazar said, something horrible happened.
00:58:43Kazar on the stand described being on Jeremy's bed and having taken a bunch of GHB and being
00:58:49unable to move and that he was grabbing her, that her pants were down and that he was slapping her.
00:58:57Prosecutor Dane Reinstedt.
00:58:59She testified that she told Nima she had been sexually assaulted at Jeremy Boivin's.
00:59:04That's a pretty clear indication of motive.
00:59:06In fact, that tense phone call Bo witnessed between Bob and Nima
00:59:11was all about the alleged sexual assault.
00:59:14What kinds of things is Nima saying in that phone call?
00:59:17He's interrogating Bob.
00:59:18He's questioning him about what was happening at Jeremy Boivin's place.
00:59:23When Bob visited Nima and Kazar at the Millennium Tower later that night,
00:59:28prosecutors believe Nima was furious.
00:59:32We have the text messages from Kazar to Bob talking about her brother coming down way hard
00:59:40on Bob.
00:59:41It's clear that there was more hostility.
00:59:43Some sort of argument or Nima yelling at Bob.
00:59:46Correct.
00:59:47But it would appear that by the time they departed, he had made nice.
00:59:52Prosecutors confronted Kazar with those text messages she'd sent to Bob.
00:59:57Her explanation is to many texts that she was
01:00:00high out of her mind and didn't know what she was saying.
01:00:02That was her attempt to help her brother.
01:00:05On the stand, at least, Kazar insisted there was no beef between Bob and Nima.
01:00:11According to Kazar, everything was fine there,
01:00:14that there had actually never been an issue between Nima and Bob.
01:00:18Still, prosecutors believed they had enough evidence to piece together their motive.
01:00:24Nima understood Kazar to have been sexually assaulted because she told him that,
01:00:29comes to a conclusion that the people responsible were Jeremy Boivin and Bob Lee.
01:00:35And when he gets an opportunity later that night to act against one of those two people, he does.
01:00:39That's a very convoluted motive, that Nima is angry enough at Bob to want to kill him
01:00:46for something Bob wasn't even present for.
01:00:48Why is he going after Jeremy?
01:00:50Why is he going after Bob?
01:00:51That's a great question.
01:00:52I don't know what he planned to do with Jeremy at some point.
01:00:55What happened in Jeremy Boivin's apartment is not important.
01:01:01What Nima Momeni thinks happened in that apartment, that's what is important.
01:01:09Now it was the defense's turn, and they were about to challenge the state's motive
01:01:15and Kazar's credibility.
01:01:17You believe anything comes out of Kazar's mouth?
01:01:20No, no, no, I don't.
01:01:23For nearly a month, Nima Momeni's mother, Manaz, watched prosecutors portray her son
01:01:42as a cold-blooded killer.
01:01:44My son is not that type of person.
01:01:47I have raised a very kind son.
01:01:51Both of my kids, they are really kind, they are really giving.
01:01:55And my son has not been any aggressive person to hurt someone, never.
01:02:02Defense attorney Sam Zanganeh came from Miami to represent Nima.
01:02:07He is innocent.
01:02:08The DA here, right, had unbelievable pressure on this case.
01:02:13And you think charging Nima is a sort of reaction to that?
01:02:17I think that they jumped the gun, right?
01:02:19They found somebody, they went in, and they made an arrest.
01:02:22They say something happened and Bob Lee died.
01:02:24That's it.
01:02:25He insists Bob Lee's stature in the tech business added a different layer to the case.
01:02:32There's powers that are not normally in play when the decedent is the kind of person that
01:02:37Bob Lee is, right?
01:02:39I call, not a regular victim, we call it victim plus, right?
01:02:42When you have someone who's in that victim plus era...
01:02:44That's Bob Lee.
01:02:45That's Bob Lee.
01:02:46He's victim plus squared, right?
01:02:48He sought to take apart the prosecution's case, starting with a murder weapon.
01:02:54The blade's this big.
01:02:56It's a little paring knife.
01:02:57Okay, but you can be killed with a blade that big.
01:02:59Of course you can, right?
01:03:00That's not the kind of blade you take to hurt somebody, right?
01:03:04If you're in a kitchen, there's a ton of knives there.
01:03:07You're going to pick the smallest, weakest one.
01:03:09The defense went after that grainy video prosecutors say showed Nima stabbing Bob.
01:03:16There's this Nest Cam, which shows these two blurry dots on Main Street.
01:03:20They've taken that video and they have sped it up, slowed it down, changed the lighting
01:03:25to make something that occurred look different than what actually occurred, right?
01:03:32Smoke and mirrors, my man.
01:03:33Smoke and mirrors.
01:03:35Also not credible to the defense, that undercover police video of Nima speaking with his attorney's
01:03:41PI.
01:03:42What's happening in that video?
01:03:43Well, I'll tell you what's not happening in that video, is that he's not pantomiming
01:03:48anything.
01:03:49They don't have any evidence of what's going on there.
01:03:52So what are they going to do?
01:03:53They're going to assume and speculate and try to force a square peg into a round hole.
01:03:57And Zanganay said there was a reasonable explanation why Nima's family tried to sell
01:04:02his white BMW after his arrest.
01:04:06They have a power of attorney.
01:04:08They took the car to the dealership where they purchased it because he had legal bills
01:04:13coming.
01:04:13They could have junked it.
01:04:14They could have lit it on fire.
01:04:15They didn't do any of that stuff.
01:04:16They took it back to the dealership.
01:04:19According to the defense, the weakest part of the prosecution's case was the motive.
01:04:25What reason would Nima Momeni have to want to kill Bob Lee?
01:04:29Their story was that Nima killed Bob Lee because Bob Lee's friend touched his sister's ass.
01:04:36It didn't make any sense.
01:04:38Two and two didn't equal four, right?
01:04:40Why would he go after Bob Lee for something his friend did?
01:04:43Nima's motive might be to take out his anger on Jeremy Boyvin and not on Bob.
01:04:48Right.
01:04:48But he doesn't.
01:04:49The defense argued Nima was not furious with Bob at all and pointed to those security videos
01:04:55of Bob and Nima leaving the Millennium Tower, showing two people who looked friendly and calm.
01:05:02They didn't leave in a hurry, Josh.
01:05:04They went and hung out in the front of the valet, didn't appear to have any issues.
01:05:09Is that the video of two guys who have settled whatever dispute they had?
01:05:13Or is that Nima concealing his anger until a time
01:05:17when he can take out that anger on Bob without anyone watching?
01:05:21Anyone watching?
01:05:22But the fight happened on a place called Main Street.
01:05:26This wasn't in like a little cul-de-sac or a little hidden place.
01:05:29The prosecution's like, oh, it's under a bridge, bro.
01:05:31It's on a place called Main Street.
01:05:33It is a busy street.
01:05:35And in a very odd moment, even though Kazar Momeni and her husband helped bankroll Nima's defense,
01:05:43Zanganay told jurors she had no credibility
01:05:46and to disregard her version of what happened that night.
01:05:51You believe anything comes out of Kazar's mouth?
01:05:53No, no, no, I don't.
01:05:55And let me tell you why.
01:05:56Because she's an addict, OK?
01:05:59You can't ask the jury to believe something that doesn't really pass the smell test, right?
01:06:04On the stand, Kazar said she had sought help for her substance abuse problems
01:06:09and completed a rehab program.
01:06:13Jeremy Boivin was never called to testify.
01:06:17While he admits smacking Kazar's backside, he denies ever assaulting her.
01:06:22Did you abuse Kazar?
01:06:24No, not once.
01:06:26We had a physical relationship after the fact
01:06:29and continued to have a physical relationship for many months after that.
01:06:34So her saying these allegations is just baseless and really unfounded.
01:06:42In court, Kazar acknowledged Jeremy stayed in her apartment after Bob's death.
01:06:48She didn't remember for how long and said it wasn't sexual.
01:06:52After her testimony, Jeremy claimed Kazar apologized to him for making the assault allegation.
01:07:00And she said, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that?
01:07:03Yes.
01:07:03So to you, at least, she's admitting to lying on the witness stand.
01:07:09Hey, it's none of my business, really.
01:07:13Bottom line is, I didn't do it.
01:07:16There was no sexual assault at any point.
01:07:19Whatever happened at Jeremy Boivin's apartment didn't matter, argued NEMA's attorneys.
01:07:24They were about to offer a whole new theory about what happened that night.
01:07:30When we tell our story and we explain exactly how it transpired, it's eye-opening.
01:07:49NEMA Momente's attorneys were prepared to turn the case upside down.
01:07:54While the prosecution blamed NEMA, they were going to blame Bob Lee.
01:08:00When we tell our story and we explain exactly how it transpired, it's eye-opening.
01:08:06The defense focused on Bob's partying in the days and hours leading up to his death.
01:08:11Bob, they said, was sleep-deprived and full of drugs and alcohol.
01:08:17NEMA's attorneys argued a drug-fueled bender like that could have caused Bob to become violent.
01:08:24It's 2 a.m., his flight's in seven, eight hours, and he is still actively
01:08:30just partying like a rock star, which to me suggests he had no plans on sleeping
01:08:36and consuming, consuming.
01:08:39Zanganay said Bob, not NEMA, was the one with a knife,
01:08:44and it could have come from Kazar's or somewhere else.
01:08:48I don't think he took the knife as a weapon.
01:08:52Bob's doing coke. He's been doing coke for multiple days.
01:08:56This is what you do. You take the knife, you use the bottom to break up the bag, and then...
01:09:03Even though he pleaded not guilty, NEMA was about to admit
01:09:07he was responsible for Bob's death. He said it was self-defense.
01:09:13He's been chomping at the bit, man, for so long to be able to tell the story.
01:09:17Prosecutors knew a lot hung on NEMA's performance on the stand.
01:09:22We had great evidence, like the DNA, but ultimately, if NEMA Momeni is believable,
01:09:29credible, sympathetic...
01:09:31If he tells a good story...
01:09:32We lose.
01:09:33He walks away.
01:09:33I think so.
01:09:34The three stab wounds...
01:09:36Reporter Sergio Quintana was in court for NEMA's testimony.
01:09:41He went on the stand and on direct,
01:09:45followed what seemed to be a pretty tight script as to what to say and how the night went down.
01:09:52NEMA said the night unfolded like this. Yes, Kazar told him Jeremy assaulted her.
01:09:58At first, he was upset, but when he spoke with others at that party,
01:10:03he concluded his sister was probably exaggerating. He denied being angry at Bob.
01:10:10NEMA also said a couple of other things. He confirmed his sister had an open marriage,
01:10:16and he said he, Kazar, and Bob all did coke together before NEMA and Bob left the Millennium
01:10:23Tower. They talked about going on to a strip club, and NEMA offered to give him a ride.
01:10:30They start driving because they're going to go towards where the strip clubs are.
01:10:34That's when they had the little hiccup. NEMA's like, hey, he spilled his beer all over him.
01:10:39NEMA told jurors he pulled over to that area underneath the Bay Bridge to help clean up the
01:10:44mess. That's when Bob noticed something in the back seat. He found some whippet canisters back
01:10:51there because Kazar had left it in his car. He did a few hits, took a few bumps, and then got out of
01:10:56the car. He thought he was going to puke. NEMA went. They're outside, and then that's when the
01:11:00conversation went from normal to adversarial. NEMA said he made a joke, a bad one, he admitted.
01:11:08He was like, well, why would someone like you with a family be out here? Why wouldn't you just be
01:11:13with them instead of trying to go to some strip club? That apparently, according to NEMA Momeni,
01:11:21enraged Bob Lee. At some point, Bob produces a knife from his jacket, and he lunges at NEMA
01:11:28Momeni. NEMA manages to redirect the knife. The way he tells it on the stand is really
01:11:38a gloss over. He barely even mentioned that he happened to have tapped him twice in the chest.
01:11:44NEMA even had an explanation about why he threw the knife over the fence and drove away. He thought
01:11:51Bob Lee was fine. It seemed from his testimony that he didn't even realize that Bob Lee was
01:11:56injured. The defense team asked, well, why did you toss the knife? He said, well, so he couldn't get to it
01:12:01afterward. Defense attorneys were prepared to show jurors exactly how they claim Bob attacked NEMA.
01:12:09We had a digital animation made. That's NEMA on the right wearing the beanie. Bob's on the left
01:12:16with the knife. He swung, right, which is what our animation shows, that it was a swinging motion.
01:12:24The defense said it was at this moment that NEMA grabbed Bob's arm and pushed the knife toward him.
01:12:30That's how Bob got stabbed in the chest. And it shows him walking backwards with what appears to
01:12:35be his hands up in the air, right, and then goes to the other side of the sidewalk, tracks in the
01:12:41northerly direction. It shows him bending down, picking up the knife, and then throwing it over
01:12:47the fence. And according to the defense, that's how NEMA's DNA got on the knife handle. NEMA's
01:12:54attorneys had hoped to play that animation in trial. The judge did not allow it. That is the most
01:13:03far out story I think I've ever heard in my life. Bob's brother Oliver watched the trial
01:13:08and thought NEMA's story was ridiculous. You saw Bob on drugs. Did he become a violent,
01:13:16angry guy when he was using drugs? No. He would tend to be, you know, more outgoing,
01:13:22like when he was on drugs, but he would never be violent. So when you heard that at trial...
01:13:26Absolutely insanity, right? It is the most opposite thing of what Bob was.
01:13:33I thought he gave a pathetically comical story that made no sense.
01:13:40Then prosecutor Talai cross-examined NEMA.
01:13:44You know, I had a strategy coming into the cross-examination. I am trying to provoke him,
01:13:51and within about five, 10 minutes, I could tell he wasn't going to be able to control himself.
01:13:58There was multiple attempts by the prosecutor to try to poke holes in his story, and he did hang
01:14:05on to dear life or to that story. And you could see on the stand that his nature is to get a
01:14:12little combative and will turn and start asking you questions of what's going on.
01:14:20Even NEMA's own attorney admits his client lost his temper during cross-examination.
01:14:26The prosecutor, to his credit, really quickly got under his skin. The same guy that had been
01:14:31calling him a coward and a dirtbag for 18 months. But here's what I'll tell you. His testimony
01:14:38didn't change. It also doesn't make any sense. What doesn't make sense? Why don't you tell me
01:14:42what you didn't... What? Bob attacks him, but NEMA doesn't realize that he stabbed him. Then
01:14:48Bob walks away, and then I threw away this knife that he tried to use on me,
01:14:52doesn't ask for an ambulance. That's not the most credible story.
01:14:56Well, I mean, listen, leaving the knife within a few feet of the scene, right, is maybe subjective
01:15:02of someone that is panicking. I don't think it's as cut as dry and you guys are making it out to
01:15:06seem at all. I don't. Respectfully. Respectfully. To me, those are the actions of someone who knows
01:15:13that they did something wrong and is trying to avoid responsibility. Yeah, but then why would
01:15:17you leave the knife at the scene? Why wouldn't you call the police and say someone tried to
01:15:21kill me and I had to defend myself? Well, when you're dealing with an immigrant like NEMA,
01:15:27someone that, you know, is an average Joe, and then the person that you're claiming tried to
01:15:31kill you is Bob Lee, probably not something you want to get yourself into. NEMA's attorneys thought
01:15:38their case was strong enough to sway the jury, and they still had one last card to play.
01:15:45The defense attorney, Sam Zanganay, says, look, that's the knife. Very dramatic.
01:16:05Jurors had heard two different accounts about what happened in the early morning hours of April 4th,
01:16:112023. In one of them, NEMA Momeni was the attacker. In the other, he was the victim.
01:16:19During his closing arguments, defense attorney Sam Zanganay had one more surprise.
01:16:25From a strategic decision, we held off. We didn't talk about it. We entered it into evidence.
01:16:31Reporter Sergio Quintana was in the courtroom when the defense played a new security video.
01:16:37The video is outside the battery, and it's of Bo and Bob, and they walk out onto the street.
01:16:47Bob does a motion where he scoops something and then does this whole thing.
01:16:53The defense told the jury Bob was doing cocaine using a small object.
01:16:59The defense attorney, Sam Zanganay, says, look, look at the thing that he's got. Look,
01:17:05it's about as long as what we know is the murder weapon, and he's using it to do,
01:17:11that's it. That's the knife. Very dramatic.
01:17:15The defense said this was proof Bob had a knife that night, not NEMA.
01:17:21That looks to me like a knife.
01:17:23And you're convinced that's the knife that eventually became the murder weapon.
01:17:26What else would it be? Because nothing else was recovered that looked like that on him. Nothing.
01:17:31This is not some TV legal show. You knew this was coming.
01:17:34We watched a video from the battery. We've watched hundreds of hours of video.
01:17:39You could watch that video a thousand times, and you will never see a knife,
01:17:46no matter how many times you get in the jury's face and yell, that's the knife.
01:17:51That's not Bob Lee doing cocaine off the knife that ended up being the murder weapon.
01:17:55That's correct. That's not Bob Lee with the knife. That just happens
01:17:59to be a Joseph Joseph knife that Kazama Menni had in her place.
01:18:04Bo told us he never saw Bob with a knife that night or ever. What would jurors believe?
01:18:12As they filed into the deliberation room, all everyone could do was wait and wait.
01:18:18You feel confident?
01:18:20I have had my heart broken in this town before, so confidence is always going to be limited
01:18:28on anything.
01:18:29The first day goes by, there's no verdict. You're not worried.
01:18:33Correct.
01:18:33Second day, third day, you're okay.
01:18:37Correct.
01:18:38You didn't answer as quickly, did you?
01:18:41You know, around the fifth, sixth day, which was the deadline that the judge had previously
01:18:49given the jury for when their service would be done, it's at that point in time that I'm
01:18:55a little concerned.
01:18:57Six days went by, still no verdict.
01:19:01On the sixth day, as we're all waiting there, we see some odd things with this jury because
01:19:08they go to lunch early and then they come back and then they go on their afternoon break
01:19:13and we see one juror sitting with his head down like this, two benches away from us.
01:19:21We're the media, right? We can't get video of him because we're not allowed to interact
01:19:25with the jurors, but we can see him sitting by himself with his head down.
01:19:32The rest of them, they leave the building.
01:19:34I thought that it was going to be a mistrial.
01:19:35You did?
01:19:36Yeah. I thought that if they didn't come to a decision on that day, they were going to hang.
01:19:42And I thought that that's what it was going to be.
01:19:45Finally, after seven days of deliberations, jurors sent word.
01:19:50They had reached a decision, but it was late in the day.
01:19:55Everyone would have to return the next morning.
01:19:57How'd you sleep that night?
01:19:59I didn't. Honestly, I threw up a couple times that morning.
01:20:02And you've got to be thinking to yourself, why has it taken so long and what does that mean?
01:20:06All of that.
01:20:07I don't think anyone slept that night.
01:20:10I just remember being very on edge and just overly anxious.
01:20:15The hallway was packed as prosecutors and Bob's family made their way into the tense courtroom.
01:20:21I find myself getting the most nervous.
01:20:23You know, you're powerless.
01:20:24You're sitting there and you're waiting.
01:20:25And you've done all you can do.
01:20:27I've done everything I can do.
01:20:29And perhaps it wasn't enough.
01:20:32Nima Momeni was found not guilty of first degree murder.
01:20:38The moment when I heard not guilty for first degree, I just felt my strength.
01:20:45Drop and I felt like I like I felt like a ringing in my ear and like I was going to pass out.
01:20:53Bob Lee's children were sitting right behind me as that verdict was read.
01:20:56And I wanted them to be able to walk out and know that their father's life wasn't lost in vain.
01:21:03Well, the jury wasn't done.
01:21:05The verdict for second degree murder guilty.
01:21:10Second degree.
01:21:12You OK with that?
01:21:13Yeah, absolutely.
01:21:15It was such a relief that they had come to the decision to have justice for Bob.
01:21:21And we think it is justice for Bob.
01:21:23When the verdict came in.
01:21:28You absorb it.
01:21:29I wasn't happy with it.
01:21:30I thought I think the jury I mean, I don't think they got it right.
01:21:35Nima Momeni will face 16 years to life when he's sentenced.
01:21:40He plans to appeal the conviction.
01:21:42His mother spoke after the verdict.
01:21:44This is not a fair trial and we will stand and we will continue.
01:21:49We are strong.
01:21:50We have been in a difficult time together.
01:21:53I was hoping for my dad to get justice, but also it was a really like bittersweet feeling
01:21:59because I was waiting for him to get like I was waiting for like the murderer, obviously,
01:22:04to like get what he deserved.
01:22:07But also it really sucked to like know that like no matter what the verdict was going
01:22:13to be, I was never going to get my dad back.
01:22:17The Lee family say they plan to sue the Momeni's in civil court for wrongful death.
01:22:24What they did to my children alone is unforgivable.
01:22:27Krista sees every day how much Scout and Sirius miss their dad.
01:22:33This is not the way that Bob Lee should have died ever.
01:22:38He should have died an old man, a more successful man.
01:22:43The murderer robbed this world of a great mind.
01:22:49And I will never, ever forgive this family for what they did to him.
01:22:54That's all for this edition of Dateline.
01:22:56And check out our Talking Dateline podcast.
01:23:00Josh Mankiewicz and Blaine Alexander will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode,
01:23:05available Wednesday in the Dateline feed wherever you get your podcasts.
01:23:10We'll see you again next Friday at nine, eight central.
01:23:14I'm Lester Holt.
01:23:16For all of us here at The Dateline, I'm Lester Holt.
01:23:19Nine, eight central.
01:23:21I'm Lester Holt.
01:23:22For all of us at NBC News, good night.