- Nima Momeni, the suspect in the killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee, will be arranged on April 25.
- Momeni’s lawyer, Paula Canny, is on vacation, Canny’s brother and fellow attorney told the court.
- Momeni will be held in custody until the arrangement, the court is ruled.
The tech consultant Nima Momeni appeared in a San Francisco court on Friday, the day after his arrest on accusations he murdered Cash App founder Bob Lee earlier this month.
Momeni was scheduled to be arranged on Friday — a trial in which the defendants are reading the charges against them brought by the prosecutors, after which they can enter their plea.
The arrangement was posted to April 25 after a brief hearing in San Francisco state court.
That’s because Momeni’s attorney, Paula Canny, was on vacation, her brother and fellow attorney Robert Canny told the court.
Momeni attended the hearing wearing an orange sweatsuit, a black face mask, and with his head shaved. He didn’t speak at the proceedings, except to briefly answer a question by Judge Christine Van Aken, who oversaw the hearing. His sister Khazar Momeni was also seen in court.
A representative for Paula Canny’s law firm did not comment. A representative for the San Francisco District Attorney’s office did not respond to emailed requests for comment on Friday.
Canny later addressed reporters outside the courtroom, saying Momeni’s friends and multiple family members attended the hearing.
“My sister’s on vacation,” he said. “He had friends and family here in support. The facts as to what happened and did not happen will come out over time.”
The 38-year-old Momeni was arrested in Emeryville, California, the San Francisco police department said at a press conference on Thursday.
Momeni’s arrest on Thursday, first reported by the Mission Local outlet, followed by a more than week-long hunt for a suspect in a case of inflamed speculation in the tech industry about the circumstances of the fatal assault on Lee.
Some commentators, including Twitter CEO Elon Musk, implied baselessly that Lee was randomly attacked.
But at Thursday’s press conference, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said that police believe Momeni and Lee may have known each other, repudiating the narrative on social media discussing Lee’s death in the context of street crime in San Francisco.
Correction: April 14, 2023: An earlier version of this story missed the name of the judge, Christine Van Aken.