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Cash App founder used cocaine, ‘Special K’ before homicide: toxicology report

A memorial is seen near the building where tech executive Bob Lee was fatally stabbed in San Francisco on April 4. Officials indicated on April 13 that an arrest had been made in connection with his death. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Cash App founder Bob Lee had multiple “party drugs” in his system when he was slain, according to a San Francisco coroner’s autopsy and toxicology report obtained by Nexstar’s KRON.

A chief forensic toxicologist for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner completed a toxicology test on Lee using blood samples. The blood tests detected: cocaine; ketamine and norketamine, also known as “Special K”; alcohol; and Levocetirizine, an antihistamine.

The 43-year-old tech executive called 911 at 2:36 a.m. on April 4 and told dispatchers that someone stabbed him in the chest, the autopsy report states. San Francisco police officers found Lee bleeding from three stab wounds, unconscious, and lying in a street.

Paramedics rushed Lee to San Francisco General Hospital where surgeons battled to save his life.

“The subject was found to be pulseless and massive transfusion protocol began. The subject then underwent an emergency thoracotomy. The thoracotomy revealed two injuries to the heart,” the autopsy report states.

Lee died on an operating table and he was declared deceased at 6:49 a.m., according to the report. His death was classified as a “homicide stabbing.”

In the hours leading up to Lee’s violent death, he spent hours hanging out with Khazar Elyassnia and friends drinking in luxury hotels and apartments, prosecutors wrote in court documents.

One of the hangouts happened inside an apartment on Mission Street near Van Ness Avenue, court documents show. The apartment is home to a suspected drug dealer who was once arrested for possessing cocaine, ecstasy, acid, and mushrooms, according to The San Francisco Standard.

A witness told investigators that Elyassnia’s brother, 38-year-old Nima Momeni, confronted Lee after the group of friends had left the apartment and returned to Lee’s hotel room. “(Momeni) was questioning (Lee) regarding whether his sister was doing drugs or anything inappropriate,” court documents state.

Khazar Elyassnia, left, stands in the Hall of Justice in San Francisco on April 14, 2023, ahead of a court appearance by her brother, Nima Momeni. Elyassnia’s husband, a prominent plastic surgeon, is to her right. (AP Photo /Olga Rodriguez)

Lee tried to reassure Momeni that nothing inappropriate happened. Around 2 a.m., Lee and Momeni left Elyassnia’s apartment together in a BMW, prosecutors said. Momeni secretly armed with a knife, drove his unsuspecting victim to a dark and secluded area of Main Street near the Bay Bridge, and stabbed Lee in the heart, according to authorities. Days later, detectives arrested Momeni at his Emeryville home and he was charged with one count of murder.

Lee was an admired, wealthy, and successful figure in the Bay Area tech industry. He was a father of two, chief product officer of cryptocurrency company MobileCoin, and the former CTO of Square. While speaking to reporters, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins declined to say if Lee, Elyassnia, and Elyassnia’s husband were tangled in a “love triangle.”

Lee is survived by his ex-wife, two daughters, father, and brother.

Momeni’s defense attorney, Paula Canny, said her client is not a murderer and illegal narcotics are a theme to the backstory.

Canny told NewsNation, “There is a huge backstory to this. More will be revealed later. Who would like to see their sister, who they are super protective of, potentially be drugged? Nobody. Any good brother would be upset about it.”

Canny said the surveillance videos are too grainy to identify who was recorded on camera, nor see what happened.

“Of course they say he did it, that’s what prosecutors and police officers do. The video that I’ve seen, you can’t tell who is in the video. The video that I’ve seen doesn’t depict what they are saying. I don’t think he is guilty of the crime of murder,” Canny said.

“There isn’t enough evidence. There’s no malice, there’s no premeditation, there’s no intent,” Canny added.

Momeni is scheduled to make his third court appearance Tuesday afternoon to enter a plea.