Source: MobileCoin Inc.
Joel Rosenblatt
The man accused of stabbing and murdering Bob Lee, the chief product officer of crypto startup MobileCoin Inc., made his first court appearance to push back the date to enter his plea.
Nima Momeni, who is in custody without bail, appeared briefly in a San Francisco courtroom to ask to delay his arraignment until April 25 because the lawyer handling his case is on vacation. The judge granted the request.
Momeni appeared in an orange sweatshirt and only acknowledged his lawyer’s request for the delay. Members of his family were also in the courtroom.
Momeni, a 38-year-old IT entrepreneur, was arrested Thursday in the nearby city of Emeryville and charged with murder in the stabbing of Lee, 43, on a downtown street in San Francisco in the early morning of April 4, police said.
Read More: Suspect in Bob Lee Killing Is Bay Area-Based IT Entrepreneur
“The facts, as to what occurred and did not occur will come out over time,” Robert Canny, who stood in as Momeni’s lawyer in court Friday, said after the hearing, declining to discuss the case in further detail. Canny asked for the postponement on behalf of his vacationing sister, Paula Canny.
Arraignment postponements are routine in criminal cases to give defense lawyers time to gather facts and learn “what do they have, and what do they not have,” Robert Canny said after the hearing, referring to how strong a case prosecutors might have.
Read More: Silicon Valley Executive Killed in San Francisco Stabbing
Many details about the case remain unknown. San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said at a news conference Thursday that Lee and Momeni knew each other, but declined to offer any alleged motive behind the fatal attack or how how Momeni was identified as the suspect.
Lee was the first chief technology officer of Square, the startup co-founded by Jack Dorsey, and now called Block Inc. While at the company, he created CashApp, a money transfer tool that lets users buy stocks and Bitcoin. Earlier in his career, he helped develop Android while working as a software engineer for Google.
