Cash App founder had alcohol, cocaine in system when he died, autopsy report shows

SAN FRANCISCO -- Cash App founder Bob Lee had alcohol, cocaine, ketamine and allergy medicine in his system when he died last month, according to an autopsy report released Tuesday.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner's report shows Lee, 43, died from multiple stab wounds, one of which pierced his heart.

Doctors at San Francisco General Hospital tried for hours to close the wounds in Lee's heart and save his life, but they declared him dead at 6:49 a.m. April 4, according to the 18-page autopsy report.

Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Ellen Moffatt concluded Lee's cause of death was multiple stab wounds, and that the manner and method of death was homicide by sharp injury.

Tech consultant Nima Momeni, 38, was charged with murder with a sentencing enhancement of using a knife in the April 4 stabbing death of Lee. If convicted, he faces 26 years to life in prison. A plea hearing on Tuesday was continued until May 18 after Momeni's defense attorney, Paula Canny, asked for more time.

Outside the courtroom, Canny emphasized Lee's drug use could have led him to make bad decisions.

"There's a lot of drugs in Bob Lee's system. I mean, Bob Lee's system is like the Walgreens of recreational drugs," Canny said.

"What happens when people take drugs? Generally, they act like drug people, and what drug people act like is not themselves, not happy-go-lucky," she said. "Just kind of illusory and make bad decisions and do bad things."

She wouldn't say whether Momeni did drugs with Lee, who police said was his acquaintance. The 38-year-old tech entrepreneur has yet to answer to the murder charge against him.

"To do my job effectively, I need the police reports, that's why I said that sort of thing like it's not rocket science. If the police are going to make an arrest, they are duty bound to make these materials available to defense counsel," said Canny.

Canny said when the time comes, Momeni will plead not guilty.

Prosecutors say Momeni drove Lee to a secluded spot and stabbed him over a dispute related to Momeni's sister. They said in court documents that surveillance video and testimony from a friend of Lee who was with him the afternoon and evening before he died led investigators to Momeni.

A friend of Lee, who was not identified, told investigators the two of them met with Momeni's sister, Khazar Elyassnia, at an apartment where she was drinking with another unidentified man, according to court documents. The friend said he and Lee left the apartment and went to Lee's hotel room where he witnessed a conversation in which Momeni was questioning Lee over whether his younger sister "was doing drugs or anything inappropriate," prosecutors said.

The friend and Lee parted ways around 12:30 a.m. Minutes later, Lee can be seen on video surveillance entering the high-end Millennium Tower, where public records show Elyassnia and her husband, Dino Elyassnia, own a unit. The video also shows Lee and Momeni leaving the building shortly after 2 a.m. and driving off in Momeni's BMW.

Prosecutors say that Momeni drove to a dark and secluded spot, parked his car and after the two got out of the car, attacked Lee with a kitchen knife, stabbing him three times, including once in the heart. He then sped away "and left victim to slowly die," according to a motion to detain. Police recovered a knife with a 4-inch blade at the scene.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said defense attorneys often smear a homicide victim's character as a defense strategy. "Whether or not someone has or has not done drugs - that does not give someone a license to kill him," Jenkins said.

Lee is known for creating the widely used mobile payment service Cash App while working as chief technology officer of the payment company Square, now known as Block.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.