Silicon Valley executive Bob Lee, who was stabbed to death in San Francisco last month, had cocaine, ketamine and alcohol in his body when he died, according to an autopsy report released by the city medical examiner’s office.
The report confirms the conclusion by local police that Lee, 43, died April 4 of multiple stab wounds and classifies the death as a homicide.
Nima Momeni, the 38-year-old owner of a small IT firm, is charged with murdering Lee with a kitchen knife on a downtown street late at night. He is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon.
Prosecutors have called the slaying “planned and deliberate” in a court filing in which they urged a judge not to grant bail and release Momeni ahead of trial.
The filing said a friend of Lee’s who was having drinks with Lee and Momeni’s younger sister the day before the stabbing told investigators he overheard a FaceTime call in which Momeni questioned Lee over whether his interaction with the sister involved “drugs or anything inappropriate” — which Lee denied.
Hours later, surveillance footage showed Momeni and Lee leaving in Momeni’s car from the Millennium Tower luxury high-rise apartment building where the sister lives.
Momeni drove in the opposite direction of Lee’s hotel where, a few blocks away, where both men exited the car, prosecutors said, citing camera footage in the filing. In the next five minutes, Momeni stabbed Lee three times, including one wound in the heart that killed him, before speeding away, prosecutors say.
Momeni’s lawyer, Paula Canny, has previously said that evidence cited by prosecutors doesn’t support a premeditated murder charge, and that Momeni will plead not guilty. Canny got the arraignment postponed from a week ago after telling the judge she was waiting to receive the autopsy report.
Canny didn’t immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment on the autopsy report.
Ketamine, originally designed as an anesthetic, is also used to treat depression and as a recreational drug, known for producing hallucinogenic effects.
Lee, who was chief product officer at cryptocurrency startup MobileCoin and previously created Cash App, was revered in the tech world for his coding talents.