Cash App creator Bob Lee's autopsy shows he died of 3 stab wounds. His suspected killer's defense is pointing to drugs found in his system.

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Cash App creator Bob Lee's autopsy shows he died of 3 stab wounds. His suspected killer's defense is pointing to drugs found in his system.
An autopsy report confirmed that Cash App creator Bob Lee's cause of death to be multiple stab wounds.MobileCoin
  • Cash App founder Bob Lee died from stab wounds that damaged his heart, a medical report reveals.
  • Lee had himself called 911 after he was attacked in downtown San Francisco last month.
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Cash App founder Bob Lee died at the San Francisco General Hospital after hourslong emergency efforts to treat three stabbing injuries, according to a medical examiner's report released this week.

The wounds, which damaged his heart and lung, resulted in Lee's death at 6.49 a.m. on April 4, according to the report released by the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Police in the city had disclosed that they'd responded at 2.35 a.m. that morning to a stabbing attack, saying the victim had then been brought to a "local hospital with life-threatening injuries." The medical report states that the police officers attempted CPR when they found Lee, who had sustained wounds on his "left upper chest."

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At the hospital, Lee underwent a series of emergency procedures, including one in which doctors cut his chest to treat wounds to his heart that they sealed up with staples, according to the report. Doctors also found injuries in his lung, the report said.

San Francisco prosecutors have leveled a murder charge against tech consultant Nima Momeni, a suspect in Lee's killing, whom police apprehended last month in Emeryville, California, after a more than weeklong search.

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Prosecutors have also indicated that they had evidence to indicate that Lee and Momeni had a tense personal interaction that may have escalated. In a filing last month in San Francisco state court, they said that Lee and Momeni discussed Momeni's sister, who prosecutors indicated had been socializing with Lee the afternoon before he was attacked.

Lawyer for murder suspect points to drugs found in toxicology report

A toxicology finding in the report also indicated that Lee's tests at the time showed the presence of substances including alcohol, ketamine, and cocaine. But ketamine may sometimes be used to dull pain during procedures, and the alcohol detected was low, one medical expert told CNN.

Momeni was scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday, but his lawyer Paula Canny persuaded Judge Victor Hwang, who presided over the hearing in San Francisco state court, to postpone the hearing until May 18.

Cash App creator Bob Lee's autopsy shows he died of 3 stab wounds. His suspected killer's defense is pointing to drugs found in his system.
Nima Momeni, the man charged in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee, makes his way into the courtroom at the Hall of Justice for his arraignment in San Francisco, Tuesday, May 2, 2023. (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool)(Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool)

Canny told reporters outside the courtroom that Lee's toxicology report would factor in the case.

"Bob Lee's system is like the Walgreens of recreational drugs," she told reporters in an impromptu press meet after Tuesday's brief hearing. Even though the medical examiner's report had stated the only cause of Lee's death as "multiple stab wounds," Canny suggested the toxicology findings would be relevant to the defense.

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"Put on your thinking caps — what happens when people take drugs? Generally, they act like drugged people," Canny said. "And what can drugged people act like? Not themselves."

This is the third time Momeni's hearing has been delayed, though it's not unusual for arraignment hearings in murder cases to get pushed. The defense often attempts to learn more information about the prosecutors' case before entering a plea or trying to make a case for proposing some sort of bail release. Momeni has been held in custody in the meantime, Insider previously reported.

Representatives for the San Francisco District Attorney's office did not respond to Insider's emailed request for comment on Tuesday.

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