Momeni forensics expert supports self-defense

A forensic pathology expert took the stand yesterday in the murder trial of Cash App founder Bob Lee, telling jurors that Lee's stab wounds were consistent with the self-defense theory of his alleged killer, Nima Momeni.

The trial has reached its fifteenth day. Momeni's defense attorneys are calling witnesses to bolster their argument that Lee, who had used cocaine and ketamine in the days before his April 3, 2023, knife attack, may have become agitated and acted aggressively. According to his lawyers, Momeni acted in self-defense.

John Marraccini, a former Florida chief medical examiner, was brought in as an expert witness to support the argument that Lee tried to stab Momeni, forcing Momeni to turn the knife on Lee.

“Usually when someone attacks someone else with a knife, a vital organ is attacked,” Marraccini said. However, Lee was stabbed in the hip, and Marraccini said that “the path was very superficial” and “very out of character,” which begs the question: “Was this a diversionary attempt?”

The subject of Momeni's alleged anger was a question that remained on his mind throughout the trial. Prosecutors say Momeni was angry at Lee, who he said attacked his sister. Defense attorneys say Momeni was not angry at Lee but at his friend and alleged drug dealer Jeremy Boivin for sexually assaulting his sister. It is said Momeni stabbed Lee in self-defense.

Marraccini supported the defense's argument that Lee pulled the knife from his pocket and Momeni pointed it at him. Momeni would have first hit Lee's hip and then pushed him twice into Lee's chest – a scenario that Marraccini found plausible after looking at the knife wounds in Lee's body.

However, much of Marraccini's statement yesterday was speculative and other scenarios could have occurred.

Marraccini agreed that an alternative theory put forward by prosecutor Dane Reinstedt – that Momeni stabbed Lee twice in the chest and then superficially stabbed him in the hip as he walked away – was also possible.

But that scenario, defense attorneys noted yesterday, would not be consistent with the knife attacks that prosecutors say Momeni re-enacted during interviews with lawyers after his arrest.