The man accused of killing tech executive Bob Lee in San Francisco returned to court Monday for a preliminary hearing.
Nima Momeni has pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder charge in the April 4 stabbing death of the CashApp founder. Momeni has been held in San Francisco jail without bail.
Monday's hearing was the first of two days of preliminary proceedings. The hearing featured several San Francisco police investigators who testified.
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The first investigator to take the stand was Officer Cedric Hood, who was the first to arrive on scene the night of Lee's fatal stabbing. He testified that Lee was bleeding uncontrollably from wounds on his chest and hip when they found him.
Rosalyn Check, a crime scene investigator, took the stand next and testified about collecting evidence at the scene, including a knife. Check also said she swabbed the knife for DNA.
A third officer testified about the security camera videos they compiled tracking Momeni and Lee the night of the murder. In all, 18 videos were collected from several addresses, with some of the key images coming from the Millennium Tower. Those images clearly showed Momeni and Lee together about a half-hour before Lee was killed.
One of the other key videos apparently shows the car investigators said was being driven by Momeni arriving at the spot where detectives believe Lee was stabbed.
Another investigator to speak Monday had details about the party that seemed to have kicked off the final night of Lee's life. But the video is from a far away angle and it was difficult to see what was happening.
Momeni's attorney, Saam Zangeneh, asked questions from the lead investigator, indicating his client did not seem to have ill will against Lee, but against someone else.
"All the articles I've read prior to me coming on indicated they believed my client had malice against Bob Lee for drugging and assaulting, or whatever it was his sister," Zangeneh said. "That's not the case. That's not the evidence."
The defense brought up another person's name during Monday's testimony.
Lead investigator SFPD Sgt. Brent Dittmer said this other man is the one who Momeni seemed to voice anger about because he allegedly had been giving Momeni's sister drugs and may have had a romantic relationship with her.
Momeni's attorneys also raised questions about the way police conducted their investigation.
"What we're doing right now is setting the scene for what kind of police was done, and the limits of that police work are," said Tony Brass, one of Momeni's attorneys.
The preliminary hearing will continue Tuesday.
