A lawyer for the man accused of killing technology executive Bob Lee questioned the thoroughness of the San Francisco police investigation after an officer testified that there was a homeless man at the scene of the stabbing.
(Bloomberg) — A lawyer for the man accused of killing technology executive Bob Lee questioned the thoroughness of the San Francisco police investigation after an officer testified that there was a homeless man at the scene of the stabbing.
The testimony from Cedric Hood, one of the first officers at the downtown street where Lee was killed, came on the first day of a hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence against Nima Momeni to proceed to trial. But Momeni’s lawyer seized on the revelation to say that it highlighted “areas of concern.”
“I think that the appropriate effort wasn’t put in to talking to that person,” defense lawyer Saam Zangeneh said at the hearing Monday, referring to the homeless man. “How are we supposed to know what he knew, or what information we can get, because nothing was done.”
The murder of the 43-year-old Lee in April touched off national headlines about the safety of San Francisco and other large cities. Police said he was killed after a fight about Lee’s relationship with Momeni’s sister.
Zangeneh said he believed the homeless man that Officer Hood testified about identified himself as Napoleon – and that’s about as much as they know.
Read more: San Francisco Bob Lee Murder Leads to Acquaintance’s Arrest
The preliminary hearing, which could last for days, offers the first real peek at the legal strategies at play in a case that has drawn international attention because of Lee’s status in the world of high technology, and the gruesome and salacious details surrounding his death.
Lee was the chief product officer at MobileCoin. He had previously created Cash App and helped develop Google’s Android operating system.
The case is People of California v. Momeni, CRI-23005500, California Superior Court in the County of San Francisco.
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