A jury that will decide Nima Momeni’s fate will reconvene on Monday for a seventh day of deliberations.
Momeni stands charged with the murder of technology executive Bob Lee in April 2023.
“From my perspective, I think it’s a good thing that the jury is taking a long time. It means they understand the gravity of the situation,” said Shannan Dugan, an attorney who has followed the case from the courtroom. ‘They don’t want to let a murderer go, but they also don’t want to convict a man of murder if he didn’t do it. So I think the fact that they’re taking a long time says a lot about the jury and they understand how important their work is.”
Dugan said the jurors had a lot to digest over the course of the trial.
“This jury could be at an impasse. That could be one of the reasons why this is taking so long,” she said.
Prosecutors argue Momeni attacked Lee because he was angry about an incident involving Lee and his sister. Momeni and his defense team argues Lee attacked him and he acted in self-defense.
Dugan said Momeni is accused of first-degree murder, there is a possibility that the jury there could acquit, but still convict him of a lesser charge.
“He is charged with first-degree murder, which requires premeditation, but there are also so-called less serious crimes, such as first-degree murder and manslaughter,” she said. “It’s murder in the second degree if he didn’t have that premeditation, but he intended to stab Bob Lee without any legal justification. In manslaughter, if he acted in the heat of passion or impulsively, but without that premeditation or without any kind of planning, they could convict him of manslaughter.”
If the jury cannot reach an agreement, a hung jury would result in a mistrial and the case would have to be retried from the beginning with a new jury.
At the start of the trial, the judge set the date for December 12, meaning jurors could leave and resume their normal lives. But late last week, the jurors asked for more time and all agreed to stay on so they could reach a unanimous verdict. They will meet again on Monday at 1:30 PM
“I think they’ll come back with something.” I mean, who knows what exactly they’re doing in that jury room, but I think they’ll come back with something,” Dugan said. “The fact that they’re coming back at 12:30, I suspect they wanted to give all the fellow jurors time to really solidify their decisions and sleep on it – I don’t know if that’s a verdict of guilty, an acquittal, a hung jury, but I suspect they will come back with something on Monday.”
