Nima Momeni
Appearances
Dateline NBC
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
Kintu Sukaroi is a kind of Japanese ceramic style which means to repair with gold. When a ceramic piece breaks, an artisan will fuse the pieces back together again using liquid gold or gold dust lacquer. And each piece becomes more beautiful because it has been broken.
Dateline NBC
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
I didn't mean for this to happen. Forgive me, George. Forgive me, Torres family. Forgive me, Judge Kranich. To the entire planet, please forgive me.
Dateline NBC
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
I didn't mean for this to happen. To the entire planet, please forgive me.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Prosecutors have been arguing that Nima stabbed Bob Lee because he was angry that his sister Kazar may have been sexually assaulted by one of Bob's friends. Bob met up with Kazar and Nima later that evening at her apartment. The prosecutor alleged that Nima took a paring knife from the kitchen. He then drove Bob to his secluded area underneath the Bay Bridge and stabbed him.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
And if that sounds confusing, it is. I mean, everyone was also drinking and doing drugs throughout the day.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Yeah, it's interesting, Andrea. Since his attorneys are arguing self-defense and there are no other eyewitnesses to this incident, the only person who can explain what happened on April 4th is the defendant himself. And you've covered cases, so have I, over my time at Dateline. It's pretty rare for this to happen. In his telling, Nima decided to call people who had been with Gazar earlier.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
So Nima ended up calling Bob Lee. And he told the jury the call actually calmed him down and he felt reassured. He was disappointed in his sister and he believed she was probably being dramatic to get attention.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
That's right. So on the stand, Nima talked through the videos of him and Bob leaving together. And he's explaining they were chummy that night. It isn't until Nima pulls over to that area under the Bay Bridge that they end up in a bit of a blind spot. And the cameras that catch them are not super high quality.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Yes. He says that Bob spilled a beer in the car and he wanted to clean it up. So he pulled over to that spot. And while he's doing that, Bob actually finds a bunch of nitrous that Kazar had left in the car. And according to Nima, Bob takes some hits of nitrous. Another word for it is whippets. Oh, yeah.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
The defense is trying to show Bob had several drugs in the system over the course of the evening.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
No, Nima says he was over it and wanted to call it a night. Not angry at Bob, he says. But Bob wanted to go back to his hotel to get more Coke. And this is an important point in Nima's testimony. Nima says he made a bad joke. Nima tells Bob, if it was my last night in town, I'd hang out with my family instead of, you know, effing around in strip clubs. Yeah. Okay, so Nima says that to Bob.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Exactly. So Nima tells the jury that Bob went from zero to 100. He was offended and he was cussing Nima out, circling around him. Nima claims Bob retorted back, you think I'm a bad effing dad? I'm going to F you up. You don't think I can F you up, right? And they actually start physically fighting at this point? Yeah.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
So Nima says that Bob chest bumps him, and then he saw Bob pulls out a knife from his coat pocket. That's when Nima grabs his wrist and deflects the knife. And this is kind of a big moment in court so far. Nima and his attorney start reenacting on the witness stand exactly what happened between him and Bob. They tussle with the knife, and Nima ends up pushing Bob forward. But then Bob backs away.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Okay, so how does Bob end up stabbed? Nima can't really explain how Bob was stabbed because he actually said he didn't know Bob was stabbed. He says after the whole altercation, Bob walked away, was on his phone, was silent, and he didn't think he was injured at all. When does Nima say that he found out that Bob died?
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
So Bob dies early Tuesday morning, and Nima says he learned about Bob's death through a text from his sister later that evening. He said he didn't really believe her at first and didn't understand what she was talking about. But on Wednesday morning, he saw the news and he testified he was heartbroken. He said, he attacked me, but he didn't deserve that.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Yeah. Yes, it's kind of almost a full circle of this story. In the first hours after Bob died, media outlets and even prominent people in the tech industry assumed Bob was killed by a stranger, probably somebody who was unhoused. On the stand last week, Nima did tell jurors there were homeless people on the street. There's a homeless shelter right there.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Kind of insinuating that even though he got in this altercation with Bob on the street, that possibly after he left, Bob was stabbed by somebody else.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Yeah, the prosecutor really came out swinging. The prosecutor tried to show Nima's story didn't make sense. And how could Bob, the successful tech businessman, lose his temper so quickly over a quote-unquote dumb joke and pull out a knife on Nima? So the prosecutor and Nima got pretty contentious, combative? Cross-examination was pretty tense. Nima interrupted the prosecutor several times.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
In one exchange, the prosecutor said, I ask the questions, you answer the questions. The prosecutor also brought up the various texts between Nima and his sister Kazar that make him look pretty suspicious that he was angry at Bob. But Nima accused the prosecutor of pulling texts out of order and out of context. And you could tell that Nima was frustrated. Don't envy the jury in this case.
Dateline NBC
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
They have a lot to consider here. It's a very complicated case, and they have a lot of testimony they have to sift through.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
Hey, Andrea. How are you?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
Oh, I so well remember standing there looking at that little building, Andrea. Here's Perugia, this medieval beauty of a town known for making chocolate and educating students. And yet here I was before this house that was all over the headlines called the House of Horrors. And it turned out to be all of that.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
Well, our most interesting stop on that trip, we went to the office of the chief prosecutor. And he sat us down and he took us through this very lurid operatic theory of the crime. He said there were three people involved here. It was three on one. It was a sex game gone wrong.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
Amanda Knox holding the victim with a knife under her chin, her boyfriend of just a few days, an Italian boyfriend, and a third man who sexually assaulted the roommate. And it all took place in that little cottage, the House of Horrors.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
The Italian authorities leaked every bit of information I think they had at the time, especially to the British tabloids. The media had a field day when it found Amanda's MySpace webpage. Her online nickname was Foxy Noxy. Who was Foxy Noxy, this young woman seen in her high school photo playing soccer? And it was nothing more than that. That was an allusion to her ability to play soccer.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
But somehow this appellation that she was known as Foxy Noxy became this portrayal of a promiscuous young American woman.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
Exactly. The court of public opinion had decided, we've seen her in the paper every day. What is she doing? Giggling while she's buying lingerie with her boyfriend. What is the story we hear about being in the police station doing cartwheels? It all added up to a guilty on that side of the Atlantic.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
She didn't. They bring her in, and she doesn't have an attorney, and she's being interrogated by the homicide detectives in Italian. And she gives up what they said at the time was something like a confession, where she seemed to implicate herself by being in the house. She recalled the screams of Meredith. And the other thing that happened is that they said, who is the third man?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
And Amanda Knox, under interrogation, gave up the name of her boss, the owner of a small cafe where she part-time waitressed in town. And she said, he was the guy. He's your third man. None of those things turned out to be true.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
I wasn't in Italy at the time, but I was watching the coverage, of course, and I remember feeling so sorry for her. She was so disturbed. Her face was just—it revealed everything that was going on.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
Sobbing, sobbing at her table. And just like that, it was over. 26 years for Amanda, 25 for her one-time boyfriend.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
Well, it goes to an appeals court. And here it's very interesting because everything shifts to Amanda Knox's favor. They throw out all of the forensic evidence as junk science, incompetently collected and processed. And then there's a second trial. And once again, she was found guilty. And then the appellate court did something interesting.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
They not only said there is not enough evidence to support a guilty verdict, they said she did not do it. You've got the wrong person here. So after nearly four years in prison, she was completely exonerated.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
The boyfriend was let go, too.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
I think you could say that the events of her early 20s have really shaped the person she is today. She's living back in Seattle, as I understand it. She's married with children and has become a vocal advocate for those who are wrongfully accused, wrongfully convicted. And yes, she went back to Perugia to revisit it all. It's not a case that she lets go.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
And unfortunately for Amanda, Andrea, it's not a case that a lot of members of the general public will let go either. Yeah.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
And she doesn't deserve that. And no one really remembers the name of the victim that easily, Meredith Kircher. You can't call that up as easily as you can call up Foxy Knoxie.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
It's been interesting to retrieve some of these memories again. Yeah.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
Was this murder for hire? Did someone know that he had plans for something?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Dramatic closings in the tech exec trial. Debate over DNA analysis in a quadruple homicide. And Dennis Murphy on Amanda Knox.
Here I was before this house that was all over the headlines called the House of Horrors. And it turned out to be all of that.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Prosecutors have been arguing that Nima stabbed Bob Lee because he was angry that his sister Kazar may have been sexually assaulted by one of Bob's friends. Bob met up with Kazar and Nima later that evening at her apartment. The prosecutor alleged that Nima took a paring knife from the kitchen. He then drove Bob to a secluded area underneath the Bay Bridge and stabbed him.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
And if that sounds confusing, it is. I mean, everyone was also drinking and doing drugs throughout the day.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Yeah, it's interesting, Andrea. Since his attorneys are arguing self-defense and there are no other eyewitnesses to this incident, the only person who can explain what happened on April 4th is the defendant himself. And you've covered cases, so have I, over my time at Dateline. It's pretty rare for this to happen. In his telling, Nima decided to call people who had been with Gazar earlier.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
So Nima ended up calling Bob Lee. And he told the jury the call actually calmed him down and he felt reassured. He was disappointed in his sister and he believed she was probably being dramatic to get attention. So Nima claims he wasn't angry at anybody. That's right. So on the stand, Nima talked through the videos of him and Bob leaving together. And he's explaining they were chummy that night.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
It isn't until Nima pulls over to that area under the Bay Bridge that they end up in a bit of a blind spot. And the cameras that catch them are not super high quality.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Yes, he says that Bob spilled a beer in the car and he wanted to clean it up. So he pulled over to that spot. And while he's doing that, Bob actually finds a bunch of nitrous that Kazar had left in the car. And according to Nima, Bob takes some hits of nitrous. Another word for it is whippets.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
So the defense is, oh yeah, the defense is trying to show Bob had several drugs in the system over the course of the evening.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
No. Nima says he was over it and wanted to call it a night. Not angry at Bob, he says. But Bob wanted to go back to his hotel to get more Coke. And this is an important point in Nima's testimony. Nima says he made a bad joke. Nima tells Bob, if it was my last night in town, I'd hang out with my family instead of, you know, effing around in strip clubs. Yeah. Okay, so Nima says that to Bob.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Exactly. So Nima tells the jury that Bob went from zero to 100. He was offended and he was cussing Nima out, circling around him. Nima claims Bob retorted back, you think I'm a bad effing dad? I'm going to F you up. You don't think I can F you up, right? And they actually start physically fighting at this point? Yeah.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
So Nima says that Bob chest bumps him, and then he saw Bob pulls out a knife from his coat pocket. That's when Nima grabs his wrist and deflects the knife. And this is kind of a big moment in court so far. Nima and his attorney start reenacting on the witness stand exactly what happened between him and Bob. They tussle with the knife, and Nima ends up pushing Bob forward. But then Bob backs away.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Okay, so how does Bob end up stabbed? Nima can't really explain how Bob was stabbed because he actually said he didn't know Bob was stabbed. He says after the whole altercation, Bob walked away, was on his phone, was silent, and he didn't think he was injured at all. When does Nima say that he found out that Bob died?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
So Bob dies early Tuesday morning, and Nima says he learned about Bob's death through a text from his sister later that evening. He said he didn't really believe her at first and didn't understand what she was talking about. But on Wednesday morning, he saw the news and he testified he was heartbroken. He said, he attacked me, but he didn't deserve that.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
So he's thinking, which is kind of what America thought when this story first came out, that it was possibly a homeless person? Yeah. Yes, it's kind of almost a full circle of this story. In the first hours after Bob died, media outlets and even prominent people in the tech industry assumed Bob was killed by a stranger, probably somebody who was unhoused.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
On the stand last week, Nima did tell jurors there were homeless people on the street. There's a homeless shelter right there. Kind of insinuating that even though he got in this altercation with Bob on the street, that possibly after he left, Bob was stabbed by somebody else.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Yeah, the prosecutor really came out swinging. The prosecutor tried to show Nima's story didn't make sense. And how could Bob, the successful tech businessman, lose his temper so quickly over a quote-unquote dumb joke and pull out a knife on Nima? So the prosecutor and Nima got pretty contentious, combative? Cross-examination was pretty tense. Nima interrupted the prosecutor several times.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
In one exchange, the prosecutor said, I ask the questions, you answer the questions. The prosecutor also brought up the various texts between Nima and his sister Kazar that make him look pretty suspicious that he was angry at Bob. But Nima accused the prosecutor of pulling texts out of order and out of context. And you could tell that Nima was frustrated. Don't envy the jury in this case.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
They have a lot to consider here. It's a very complicated case, and they have a lot of testimony they have to sift through.