After seven days of deliberations, the verdict in the trial of Nima Momeni was read Tuesday morning, and the jury found him not guilty of first-degree murder in the April 2023 killing of Bob Lee, but guilty of second-degree murder.

The jury also found Momeni guilty of a deadly weapon enhancement.

NBC Bay Area's Sergio Quintana described a packed courtroom, and no doubt Bob Lee's family is not entirely happy with this verdict — a verdict that indicates the jury believed, at least in part, the defense's theory of the case that Momeni did not act in a premeditated way. But they appear to have rejected the notion of self-defense.

Second-degree murder is defined as an act done with malicious intent, and with gross negligence, but without premeditation or planning. It can also be defined as a killing that occurs when a person meant to inflict harm, but not kill, a victim.

The media thronged the hallway at the Hall of Justice Tuesday, and some members of the media were in the courtroom along with the families of accused, 39-year-old Nima Momeni, and the victim, Bob Lee, who was 43. The judge disallowed any laptops or cellphones in the courtroom, but word came out of the courtroom just before 10 am.

KRON4 briefly spoke with Lee's ex-wife, Krista Lee, who called the trial experience "excruciating."

Outside the courtroom after the verdict was red, Krista Lee, as well as Lee's brother, Tim "Oliver" Lee, spoke to reporters, and seemed at least somewhat satisfied that Momeni is "going away for a long time," as Lee's brother put it.

He added that Momeni's family is all culpable for circling around him and trying to cover up his crime, which he said helped them to get a second-degree, rather than a first-degree conviction.

"The blood is on their hands," said Krista Lee, who has been the most outspoken member of the family throughout the trial. "Our fight is not over," she said, possibly referring to plans to file a civil suit over Bob Lee's death.

She added that "If it wasn't for Khazar Momeni's irresponsibility, dishonesty, drug abuse, and promiscuity, we would still have Bob alive."

Bob Lee worked for over 20 years in the tech industry, and had his hands in some of the most ubiquitous technology we use today, including Square, where he was an early employee, and Cash App, of which he was a founder. He was also an investor in Clubhouse, and an employee at Google where he worked on the Android team. He leaves behind two children, his ex Krista, his brother, and his father Rick Lee.

Throughout the trial, jurors were presented with evidence from the prosecution that Momeni had means, motive, and opportunity to kill Lee, in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023, after the two had spent two hours at Momeni's sister's condo. Khazar Momeni had called her brother to come pick her up earlier on the previous day, claiming she had been sexually assaulted while incapacitated on GHB by a man Lee introduced her to and left her alone with, a drug dealer named Jeremy Boivin.

We never heard from Boivin at trial, though he was apparently on the defense's witness list. Boivin denied Khazar Momeni's claim that he ever did anything inappropriate with her, and said through his lawyer that she and he had an ongoing and consensual sexual relationship. As ABC 7 reported, Boivin has an open drug case pending against him, and he wanted immunity in order to testify, which is something only the prosecution could have granted him.

A friend of Lee's who was with him much of that day, Bo Mohazzabi, testified to overhearing a cellphone call from Momeni to Lee in which he sounded angry and was asking many questions.

After calling Lee over to Khazar Momeni's home later that night, Momeni appears to have offered Lee a ride, either back to his hotel or to a strip club. The car pulled over in the shadow of the Bay Bridge near Rincon Hill, where the two got out, and where Momeni stabbed Lee three times with a small kitchen knife, then discarded the knife by throwing it over a fence.

An incriminating text that night on Lee's phone from Khazar Momeni suggested that Nima "came down wayyy hard" on him. But the defense has maintained that Nima Momeni acted in self-defense, and that Lee had pulled the knife after Momeni made a "bad joke" about how he'd rather be with his family if this were his last night in town, rather than go to a strip club.

Due to encryption issues, police never gained access to Khazar Momeni's phone, as ABC 7 reported. Her husband, Dino Elyassnia, allegedly Googled "How to erase an iPhone" in the days after the murder.

The defense did not deny that Momeni stabbed Lee, instead opting to describe a scenario in which Lee became aggressive, pulled a knife, and Momeni used his own self-defense training to turn the knife back on Lee. Rather than call the police after the incident, Momeni tossed the knife away and drove home, while Lee stumbled away and called 911.

The defense's strategy seemed mostly to want to avoid a first-degree murder conviction, and in that they succeeded.

Momeni's defense attorney Saam Zangeneh attempted to inject doubt in jurors' minds in his closing argument, introducing a surprise video on the final day of the trial that showed the victim, Lee, doing cocaine with a friend at The Battery social club. In some reportedly indistinct surveillance footage, Lee can be seen doing a bump off a metal object, which Zangeneh suggested could have been the murder weapon — a seven-inch paring knife with a four-inch blade taken from the kitchen of Momeni's sister.

Though the jurors did not hear this, Krista Lee told reporters that she knew exactly what that object was, and it was a metal collar stay that was Lee's implement of choice for doing bumps of coke for many years.

The possession of the knife itself, and Nima Momeni's presumed removal of it from his sister's kitchen before getting into his car with Bob Lee, certainly seemed to be proof of premeditation, but this may have been a sticking point with the jurors.

Several rebuttal witnesses testified that Lee was a happy and friendly drug user, and that they had never seen him turn aggressive while high.

The case has shined a spotlight on the casual and rampant drug use of a certain segment of wealthy and techie San Francisco. But the case did not, as was initially speculated, serve as an example of the out-of-control violence and hazards on SF's streets. As the verdict comes down, San Francisco is set to mark its lowest homicide rate in 64 years this year.

In California, second-degree murder carries a sentence of 15 years to life, with potential variances based on multiple factors, including whether the convicted person shows remorse.

We will update this post when a sentencing hearing date has been set.

All previous coverage of the Bob Lee murder trial on SFist.

Top image: Nima Momeni arrives in court at the Hall of Justice on May 18, 2023 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Paul Kuroda-Pool/Getty Images)