Additional footage obtained by police shows the
BMW heading to a "dark and secluded area" near
downtown San Francisco.
On the other hand, if he was going to kill Lee regardless, then why take the extra step of going to a second location? It seems like he truly hoped to avoid detection. So maybe he wouldn't have stabbed him in front of the apartment building, where there were plenty of cameras.
On the other other hand, that also doesn't make a lot of sense. Even though he didn't kill Lee in front of the apartment building, he.... left an absolutely damning trail of video evidence there, and then wound up being caught on video anyway at the secondary location. And then left the murder weapon at the scene, presumably with his prints on it.
In the end, Momeni's actions make just about zero rational sense so... how much useful speculation can we really do here? Zero IMO.
Combined with the stabbing being with a kitchen knife, I’m inclined to say he probably wasn’t entirely rational at the time, and more of a spur of the moment thing.
In legal terms, this might well meet the definition of premeditation, as the article said. Grabbing a murder weapon, carrying it with you to meet your victim, and driving them to another location to carry out the murder probably more than meets the definition. He was clearly sloppy, and it certainly seems possible that he was wishy-washy to an extent (possibly hoping to talk things out with Lee somehow) but I don't think those things matter too much legally.
I am, if it's not blindingly clear, not a lawyer.
A killing is never really "rational" from an ethical or moral standpoint, except for extraordinary situations like self-defense.
But premeditated murders are rational in another, more purely functional sense of the word: the killer was not untethered from reality, they understood the consequences of their actions, and took a series of concrete steps toward achieving the murder.