Pod Insights Criminology Nicki Lenway About this episode In 2022, Nicki Lenway was thirty-three years old and working as a crime scene investigator with the Minneapolis Police Department. She had a five-year-old son named Callahan with her ex-boyfriend, Tim Amacher. On April 20th, 2022, Nicki was shot multiple times while she was waiting in her car outside of a scheduled visitation between Tim and her son. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the case of Nicki Lenway. One of the gunshots hit Nicki in the neck and, even though she had a cell phone to call 911, she was unable to speak at all. Luckily, a stranger came to her aid. The issues between Nicki and Tim caused Tim to be a suspect from the beginning. There was one problem, though: he was inside visiting with his son when Nicky was shot. This gave him an airtight alibi. You can help support the show through Patreon. We'd love to connect with listeners on social media. We are available on the following platforms: Facebook - Instagram - Threads - X Formerly Twitter - Blue Sky - Twitch - Tik Tok Criminology is an Emash Digital production hosted by Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.
0:37 Speaker 01 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 358 of the Criminology Podcast. This is Mike Ferguson.
0:44 Speaker 00 And this is Mike Morford.
0:45 Speaker 01 Mr. Morford, how you doing, buddy?
0:47 Speaker 00 I'm doing pretty good. How you doing?
0:49 Speaker 01 Pretty good, pretty good. Not much happening in the last week. My wife and I watched this movie on HBO. It's a new movie. It's called Baby Girl with Nicole Kidman. I don't know if you've seen it or not. It was the weirdest movie I think I've ever seen. You ever watch a movie and at the end of it, you're not sure if the movie's good, bad, a masterpiece, garbage? That's kind of how we were left with at the end. We had no idea what we had just seen.
1:20 Speaker 00 Yeah, it's almost like a couple hours of your wife, life you just wasted.
1:25 Speaker 01 Well, that was a funny slip of the tongue. Couple hours of your wife, couple hours of your life. You know, we were watching it together.
1:32 Speaker 00 Well, I watch my British detective shows. I can't get enough of those. That's pretty much what I binge on when I have time.
1:38 Speaker 01 Yeah, I like a lot of those. They really have a lot of great series emanating from, from Britain. We had no new Patreon this week.
1:50 Speaker 00 Yeah, no new Patreon supporters this week, but we thank those who have taken the time to support the show. It helps us out a lot. For anyone else that's on the fence that hasn't done so and would like to, please head over to patreon.com/criminology to sign up.
2:04 Speaker 01 All right, buddy. Let's jump into this week's case. Imagine you're in a position that you desperately need medical attention. You know you're badly wounded, so you muster up the strength to call 911. Help is on the other line. But when the dispatcher asks you for the address of your emergency, you realize that you're unable to speak. You think the words, you mouth the words, but no sounds come out. What would you do? What could you do? This is a situation that a woman named Nikki Linway suddenly found herself in on April 20th, 2022.
2:42 Speaker 00 In 2022, Nikki was 33 years old and working as a crime scene investigator with the Minneapolis Police Department. She had a five-year-old son named Callahan with her ex-boyfriend, Tim Amacher. Nicki had full custody, both legal and physical, of Callahan, and Tim required scheduled supervised visitations. He saw his son just once a week at a parenting center with supervisors on staff. Employees there were tasked with making sure the parents didn't interact with each other during custody exchanges. April 20th, 2022 was the evening of one of the scheduled visitations where Tim would get to see his five-year-old son. At around 7:30 PM, Nicki arrived at the Family Wise Parenting Center
3:24 Speaker 00 and parked in their lot, which is on the side of the building. She was walking toward the front of the building where the entrance is when she was attacked from behind. Someone dressed in all black and wearing a medical face mask ran up to Nicki with a gun and fired several times. She was hit twice, once in the arm and again in the neck.
3:43 Speaker 01 Nicki would survive this terrible attack and live to explain the ordeal from her point of view. She later told CBS News, "I fell to the ground and the shooter stands over me and continues to try to shoot." The shooter ran off the way they came, leaving Nicki stunned and alone. She stumbled to the door of Family Wise, but due to the nature of the facility, the entrances are locked and staff members buzz clients in using a video doorbell system. Nicki couldn't wait for an employee to let her into the building. She knew she needed help now, so she pulled out her cell phone and dialed 911. This is when she realized that she couldn't speak.
4:27 Speaker 01 She knew she was bleeding. She knew she had been shot, but she just couldn't explain to the dispatcher how dire the situation was and how badly she needed help. And I've never been shot, Morph. I'm assuming you have not either. I could be wrong about that. Let me know. But I can't imagine that there's any scenario where you get shot in any part of your body and that's going to be a good day for you. But this situation where Nicki is shot multiple times. And we said it, right? Once in the neck. She's trying to call for help. She has the means. She has a phone. She has no voice.
5:12 Speaker 01 She literally cannot talk to the dispatcher. And I can only imagine that that would just add to the helplessness of the situation. You're already shot. You know that you need help. You have the means to get it. And now you find out that you can't communicate.
5:36 Speaker 00 Yeah, I've never been shot and I don't know what that would be like, that situation. You know, there's got to be shock. She's got to be thinking, what just happened to me? How did this happen? And instinct, fight or flight, she's probably trying to get away or get help and not being able to talk. That's got to be very scary to even tell somebody on the other end of the phone what happened to you. And unfortunately for Nicki, she was conscious and alert and.
6:11 Speaker 00 Didn't pass out right there after being shot. Yeah, I'd rather be awake after being shot than pass out because then you can try and help yourself, find someone that can help you, but even if she can find someone to help her, she's not able to explain what happened to her. As a forensic scientist to work the night shift, Nicki had been to countless crime scenes in the dark of night. Now there she was in the middle of a crime scene that was still unfolding in broad daylight. And this time it was her own crime scene. Each drop of blood that dripped down onto the pavement was a drop that a different crime scene investigator would later catalog. Security cameras from a bank across the street captured the entire attack, including the shooter fleeing in a black Dodge Ram pickup truck.
6:56 Speaker 00 The cameras were not the only witnesses to the crime. At the moment that Nicki was ambushed, Emily Clancy was stopped at a red light across the street. She saw everything. The figure running up from behind and then standing over Nicki with a gun, then fleeing. Emily told CBS, "There was a person who ran up to another person. I heard two bangs and that other person collapsed."
7:18 Speaker 01 Waiting for that light to turn green must have felt like it took an eternity. You have to put yourself in Emily's shoes. You just saw someone get shot. They need help. But if you rush into the intersection to help her, you might get hurt yourself or cause a huge accident. You just have to wait, hoping it's not too late when you get to the victim. This is what Emily did. As soon as the light turned green, she gunned it. She pulled up next to Nicki and stopped. She took the phone from Nicki, speaking to the dispatcher and getting help on the way. Emily also helped Nicki into the front seat of her car so she could sit down and try to focus on breathing.
8:03 Speaker 01 She then wrapped her own jacket around Nicki's neck and put pressure on her gunshot wound as the dispatcher instructed.
8:12 Speaker 01 Time during the wait for an ambulance to arrive must have felt even more agonizingly slow than it did while Emily was waiting at the red light. She explained to CBS, I just looked into her eyes and I said, Nicki, we've got this. We've got this. Just stay with me. And so we talked about the situation that Nicki was dealing with. Now you have this other individual Emily. And it's also fascinating to me to kind of look at, you know, what normal, everyday people do. And, you know, some of these situations that most of us don't experience. You see someone get shot.
8:56 Speaker 01 You know that person's hurt. What do you do? Now, I think most people would try to help. And that's what Emily did. I can imagine that, you know, some people might be scared, could even be paralyzed with fear because the shooting has just taken place. But not Emily. I mean, she jumps right into action.
9:18 Speaker 00 Yeah, Emily seems like she was a real guardian angel in the right spot at the right time and didn't hesitate. You know, and that, that time is important for the paramedics to get there to have someone helping you and putting pressure on a wound and things like that. It might be the difference between surviving that attack and not surviving. When paramedics arrived, Nicki was still conscious. They walked her over to the gurney and got her ready for transport. Shortly after Nicki was loaded into the ambulance, she passed out. Doctors at the Hennepin County Medical Center found that her injuries were severe. A bullet had lodged between her ribs, her lung had been perforated, and her vocal cords had been damaged.
10:00 Speaker 00 This is why she couldn't speak when she tried to tell a dispatcher what was happening. The black truck that the shooter used to flee the scene had no license plates and a mask and a hoodie completely obscured the identity of the driver. Whoever this was, they were prepared to evade security cameras.
10:16 Speaker 01 Nicki was in the hospital recovering from her attack for five days. It was almost as surreal for Nicki to find herself in the middle of a crime scene. She was the one leaving evidence at, as it was for her boyfriend Donovan Ford, a Minneapolis Police Department officer, to be getting briefed on his own girlfriend's near murder. Nicki and Donovan had met at work and hit it off. Donovan told CBS News, "The first time I ever saw her was on a burglary call. I definitely took notice at that point. She's gorgeous." While Nicki recovered, she thought about who had attacked her. And in her mind, she knew exactly who was responsible for the attack.
11:00 Speaker 01 Investigators spoke to her the day after the shooting. When she regained consciousness, she was still in the hospital recovering. And at that time, she still couldn't speak. Using a pen and paper, she told detectives that the only person with a motive to kill her would be Tim Amacher, the father of her son. And she knew that he was behind the attempt on her life. She told CBS, "I just knew it had something to do with Tim. I just knew. I didn't know how he was involved, but he was involved." And let's not forget, Morph, Nicki Lenway is a crime scene investigator. So she has a ton of training.
11:43 Speaker 01 I can imagine anyone that gets shot and is still alive, starts to think pretty quickly, "Who shot me? Who would have a reason to shoot me?" But a crime scene investigator is probably going to go into that in earnest, starting to analyze everything. And she came up with one name, and that was the father of her son, Tim Amacher. I guess my point is, you shouldn't shoot anyone. You shouldn't try to kill anyone. But if you do shoot and fail to kill a law enforcement officer, that person especially is going to start...
12:28 Speaker 01 Digging into who's responsible and it sounds like she came up with, you know, Tim, pretty quickly.
12:36 Speaker 00 Yeah. In this same scenario, a lot of civilian people that aren't associated with the police department, they might just lay back and focus on recovering and say, okay, I'll let the police figure this out. I need to heal. And here she's in her hospital bed thinking about who could be responsible. And it seems like the only name she came up with was Tim. So obviously, police are going to take that pretty seriously.
13:01 Speaker 01 And it wasn't just Nicki who suspected Tim Amacher. Employees at FamilyWise also told detectives that it would be wise to look into Tim due to what was described to the Minnesota Star Tribune as a difficult family history. There was also another witness who was sitting in her car, waiting to pick up her own child when she heard the shots. Immediately, that witness told first responders that the shooter had to know Nicki would be there when her son's visitation was over. She told CBS's 48 Hours, whoever did that knows she was coming to pick up her kid.
13:43 Speaker 00 The custody battle in 2020 between Nicki and Tim had been contentious. She had moved in with Tim when she was 24 in 2013 and lived with him until 2015, when she moved out. It was after she moved out that Nicki found out she was pregnant with Tim's son. Nicki ended up having sole custody and Tim ended up with just one hour a week that had to take place in a public center where he had to be on his best behavior or risk losing what little time he had with his son. Even if Nicki hadn't regained consciousness or hadn't been able to tell detectives that she suspected Tim, he would have likely been the first person on the suspect list when authorities began their investigation. It's obvious, understandable even, that Tim would be upset with this custody
14:26 Speaker 00 outcome. The question was whether or not he would be angry enough about it to want to kill the mother of his young child.
14:33 Speaker 01 And Morpheus and I have done so many episodes and you look at some of the reasons for the crimes that we talk about. Jealousy, greed, but this idea of a custody battle is one that comes up quite a bit. Anytime you have kids involved and there's a divorce, one side is not going to be happy. A lot of the time.
15:01 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think we see a lot of, a lot of cases where there's friction going on between the parents. And there can be abuse allegations, things where they're pointing the finger at each other about different things and it just leads to a lot of upheaval and bad feelings. And sometimes that can all result in an attack like this. So I think even if Nicki hadn't told the police to look at Tim, I think the police would have looked at him pretty quickly anyway.
15:33 Speaker 01 Yeah, I mean, you know, they're gonna look at Tim no matter what, just being the father of Nicki's son, but I think when you factor in a contentious custody battle, that's just gonna ramp things up. There was one big issue with the idea, though, that Tim was the one who tried to kill Nicki. Tim had an airtight alibi. When Nicki was shot, he was inside the Family Wise Center, spending time with his son as part of his weekly supervised visitation. It would have been impossible for Tim to have been the shooter. He told investigators that he was completely unaware of what had happened just outside
16:16 Speaker 01 the building while he was inside visiting with his son. But he did seem concerned about the mother of his child, asking detectives at the scene, is she okay? She going to be fine? According to CBS, Tim seemed to cooperate with the investigation and didn't mind being questioned, saying, well, of course, I'm gonna be the first guy you guys look at. Tim believed that the shooting may have been related to Nicki's work as a forensic scientist. According to CBS, Tim explained to detectives that she was afraid because she had thought people were driving by her house. He also told them that she was so afraid that she changed her
16:58 Speaker 01 last name to her middle name and she shut down her social media. She had drive-bys of Minneapolis police coming to her house all the time. She had me bring over my shotgun to her house. She was in fear. When police reviewed Nicki's recent cases, they didn't find any that would have placed Nicki in harms way like this.
17:20 Speaker 00 None of the vehicles that Tim told detectives about having access to matched the description of the black pickup truck. He had a Jeep, which he had driven to the Family Wise Center that day, and a Dodge Challenger, which is the right make, but it's a two-door car, not a truck. A detective decided to verify this information and ran Tim's name through the Driver and Vehicle Services database and found out that Tim had lied. It turned out, Tim was also the owner of a black Dodge Ram truck. As damning as this information seemed, this didn't change the fact that Tim was inside the parenting center when Nicki was shot. He couldn't have shot her. The truck seen in the surveillance video fleeing the scene also didn't have a Superman decal just in front of each of
18:03 Speaker 00 the doors that Tim would later tell detectives his truck had. His truck also had a license plate. He insisted that the truck on the video was not the same vehicle.
18:13 Speaker 01 Man, this guy's got three cars. More if he's got a truck, a Jeep, and a Dodge Challenger. That's quite a fleet.
18:22 Speaker 00 Well, he wasn't sneaky enough to hide that Ram if that was indeed the vehicle that was involved.
18:28 Speaker 01 But not a good start, right? When you lie to the authorities about owning a black truck, when in fact, pretty easy for them to figure out that you do.
18:41 Speaker 00 Yeah, it looks really suspicious that he would leave that truck out, and I think police probably elevated him up a little bit on the list of suspects because of that.
18:51 Speaker 01 When Tim's truck was later taken into police custody for analysis, it did indeed have the two Superman decals on it, which the vehicle on the video did not. This could be an issue because Tim could have put the decals on after the shooting, and he could have removed his license plate beforehand and then put it back on after. But these differences in the truck details, combined with the fact that Tim was inside the building at the time Nicky was shot, outside of it, was something that any defense attorney would have a field day with. So, police were going to have to dig hard. If Tim was behind the shooting, he wasn't the trigger man, there must have been an accomplice.
19:35 Speaker 00 Tim's truck had its own wifi, which produced GPS records, showing where it had been and when it had been there. Investigators decided to work backwards from the time of the shooting, and try to find any images of the truck captured by various surveillance systems around town. They found it, and they also learned a few very interesting things. First, images of the truck going through a Kentucky Fried Chicken drive-through just a few hours before the shooting, clearly show that there were no Superman decals on the vehicle, proving that these had been placed on after the shooting. This was proof that Tim was hiding something. There was no reason to alter the appearance of his vehicle, and then lie about it during an attempted murder investigation, if he and his truck truly had nothing to do with it. In the surveillance footage,
20:21 Speaker 00 Tim's truck also had no license plate, which he also insisted it always had. GPS data from the truck places it near the family waste center during the time of the attack.
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22:00 Speaker 01 Her name was Colleen Larson. Colleen and Tim had known each other since she was a preteen. We haven't mentioned yet that Tim Amacher was a taekwondo instructor. Colleen first met and took taekwondo lessons from Tim when she was 12 years old and they grew close over time. Colleen told 48 Hours, "At first, I actually wasn't really interested, but he was very persistent and he just kind of wore me down and I kind of started enjoying our time together." Colleen actually moved into Tim's home when she was just 18 years old, not long after Nicki had moved out. At first, Colleen and Tim told people that she was just renting a room, but in the end,
22:44 Speaker 01 their relationship became romantic. According to one neighbor, "The power dynamic in the relationship was very uneven." The neighbor explained to CBS that Colleen would call him master and ultimately kind of became, you know, like a maid or a servant to him. And more of this just gives me kind of the creepiest vibes.
23:07 Speaker 01 You know, here's a 12 year old girl who starts taking Taekwondo lessons. To me, this seems like a, like a grooming situation. Like Tim was grooming Colleen from a young age.
23:24 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think it also screams of some kind of control or coercion that he has over here. Some ability to be dominant to her. And he's even having her use names like master for him. So I think that might say a lot about the relationship and he didn't even try to hide it. These, they're using these names in front of neighbors and that's pretty disturbing.
23:49 Speaker 01 And, you know, in the research, it said she moved in with Tim when she was 18, but I just wonder what was going on prior to that and how long it had been going on when she was not of legal age.
24:05 Speaker 00 Just hours before the shooting, Tim and Colleen were both at the studio where he taught Taekwondo. At about 4:00 PM, Tim left in his Jeep and headed to the Family Wise Center for his scheduled visitation. At the same time, Colleen took the Dodge Ram and drove it to their home in St. Paul, where it stayed parked until a few minutes after seven. Cell phone data and GPS from Tim's truck show that Colleen drove straight to the Family Wise Center and she waited for Nicki to arrive. According to CBS, prosecutor Jacob Bishman said that after arriving there, she appears to be walking around, essentially scoping out the area. Searching through Tim's home, authorities found multiple bullet casings. They were collected for analysis.
24:49 Speaker 00 Investigators at the scene of the shooting were able to recover three spent 380 caliber bullet casings. Comparison of the casings found at the scene to the casing seized from Tim's home revealed that they were a match. The same kind of bullets that Tim had in his possession were the same kind of bullets that ripped through Nicki and ballistics showed that they were fired from the same gun. When he was first questioned, Tim also didn't disclose to detectives that he owned a 380 caliber gun. When they later asked him again and refused to drop the matter, he admitted that he did own two in the past, but said that he hadn't had them in some time and police didn't buy that story. So now Tim has admitted that he had these guns and then when confronted on them and
25:32 Speaker 00 the police won't let it go, he lies about when he got rid of them. So I think that was pretty troubling in the minds of police.
25:40 Speaker 01 But also something that you see a lot, right? In different cases. Yeah, I owned that type of gun, but I haven't had it in a while. I sold it. I gave it to somebody. You know, there's always a story like that. And very often, just like in this case, police don't buy those type of stories.
26:05 Speaker 01 Colleen Larson was taken into custody on April 28, 2022, just eight days after the shooting. She was charged with attempted first degree premeditated murder. While they believed that she was the one who pulled the trigger and actually tried to kill Nicki, investigators knew that she hadn't planned the attempted murder by herself. First of all, what motive would she have that Tim didn't? As his roommate slash girlfriend, Colleen had little connection to Nicki. According to CBS, Tim told investigators that there was no way Colleen would harm Nicki, saying, oh, hell no. She wouldn't hurt anybody.
26:46 Speaker 00 Tim, on the other hand, had a very clear connection to Nicki. Their five-year-old son and a rough custody battle between them. As a scorned father not even trusted to spend time with his son alone, something that Nicki had insured by fighting for custody and telling the judge negative, all their true things about Tim, he had a pretty obvious motive to harm her. On top of all that, he had to pay for fees charged by family wives for the visitations he didn't even want to have there. And the supervisor, he didn't want watching him like a hawk. With Nicki gone, he'd have full custody of his son and no one could tell him how to live his life anymore.
27:23 Speaker 01 Tim's insistence that his truck had Superman decals was a huge indication that he was involved. If he hadn't been involved, why lie about when the decals were placed on his truck? Colleen could have put them on the truck herself, either after asking Tim or without his knowledge, but that doesn't erase the fact that Tim pretended they had been on the truck before Nicki was shot. That's simply false. Add this to the fact that he initially tried to hide that he even owned the truck, lying directly to investigators when asked about his vehicles.
28:00 Speaker 00 There are many different pieces of the puzzle that pointed straight to Tim and had police looking closely at him. Despite that, he seems to have underestimated the fact that Nicki was one of their own and that police would not hesitate to go above and beyond to find her attacker and any co-conspirators they had. Nicki may not have been an officer, but her role was vital to their investigations. There was no way they were making any mistakes on Nicki's case or letting a suspect slip away. So police carefully went about their investigation.
28:30 Speaker 01 Well, that's the other thing that that we haven't really talked about. You know, she's part of law enforcement. And my thought morph is that, you know, law enforcement, they want to solve every case. But I don't think there's any doubt that when the case involves the shooting of someone in law enforcement, it's looked at in a little bit of a different light. There's even more emphasis placed on those cases. It's like, you know, you've come after one of us and we're definitely going to get you.
29:06 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think it was a all hands on deck, all resources type situation where they're going to pull out all the stops that they can to find out who did this.
29:16 Speaker 01 Investigators digging into Tim found that he went as far as to file a complaint with Internal Affairs claiming that Nicki planted crucial evidence during the investigation into the shooting of Jamar Clark that involved two Minneapolis Police Department officers. In this case, Clark's DNA was found on one of the officer's guns backing up their claim that they were in danger and that the other officer had to shoot him since he was now armed. But Nicki's specific job didn't involve handling DNA. There would have been no way for her to obtain Clark's specific DNA profile or plant it during her analysis of the crime
30:00 Speaker 01 scene. These false claims by Tim didn't surprise Nicki. He warned her when she wouldn't get back together with him that things like this would happen. She told KARE 11, "He essentially told me if I didn't change my mind about reconciling, he would ruin my reputation." Do what he could to take my son from me.
30:23 Speaker 00 These were the same tactics Nicki had been dealing with for years. When Nicki found out she was pregnant with Tim's child, he wasn't happy. He wanted her to have an abortion, but she refused. They were still broken up at that point, and eventually they tried to get along enough to raise Callahan together, but it never seemed to get easier. Tim was still angry that Nicki left him, would often try to get her to change her mind, sometimes using words and other times using violence. He once shoved her up against the wall and grabbed her throat, and on another occasion, he pulled her back inside his home by her hair. This is why there was a no contact order between them, and they had to do their custody exchanges at family-wise. It was just safer for everyone that was involved.
31:05 Speaker 01 So obviously more, you know, this relationship had its ups and downs like any relationship, but I think it went far beyond that. You know, when you get to the point of a no contact order, obviously there were things that happened.
31:22 Speaker 01 And you know, you detailed some of those out, but the violence especially, I'm assuming that was a big reason for the no contact order. The other thing that that struck me was, you know, we talked about custody and custody battles being a motive. And they often are in some of these cases we do. But money is always a factor. And, and one of the things that I think Tim was not happy about that went along with the custody battle was the fact that he was having to pay this family
32:01 Speaker 01 wives, this entity for the supervised visitations. And he didn't even want that. But to pay for it on top of that, you know, that had to be something that he struggled with.
32:16 Speaker 00 It seems like something he'd clearly be angry over. And as we're talking detailing all these things, there's just a lot of stuff jumping out that just scream abuser, controller. I mean, he's pulling her out by her hair. He's throwing her up against the wall. His new girlfriend, he's making her call him master. So we're really getting a picture here of what Tim is like.
32:42 Speaker 01 And how often does controlling and abusive go together? And we see that all the time. I think anytime you have someone who's very controlling, it is such a bad sign. And it often means that there's other things, even worse things happening in the background. In June of 2018, Nicki's garage door was vandalized. Someone wrote something derogatory and threatening referring to her relationship with Donovan, who was a cop. At that time, she and Tim were still exchanging custody of Callahan on their own. So when it came time for Tim to go to her house, she opened the garage door so he wouldn't see the message.
33:27 Speaker 01 She also didn't say a word to him about the vandalism. During the visit, he found a reason to enter the garage on his own. And during this time, he closed the garage door. When he saw what had been written on it, he yelled at Nicki and told her that her actions were dangerous to their son. That's when Nicki started to think Tim was behind the vandalism.
33:50 Speaker 00 Starting soon after the garage incident and continuing over a three-year period, Tim filed at least 10 separate complaints claiming that either Donovan or Nicki was abusing their son Callahan, both physically and sexually. Colleen also filed one of these reports. At one point, Donovan moved to Colorado for an entire year. During this time, he didn't see Callahan, yet Tim continued to make new accusations of abuse that were impossible due to Donovan's location. All of these reports were closed as unfounded allegations, and at least one report noted that Callahan was open with a social worker about his father telling him to lie about Donovan, with the goal being to get him out
34:31 Speaker 00 of the house. This is part of what led to the requirement of supervised visitation. Tim couldn't coach his son to lie, pressure him, or talk negatively about his mother or Donovan in front of the supervisor.
34:44 Speaker 01 Tim even claimed that Nicki assaulted him by running over his foot with her car during a custody exchange. Unlike all of the other allegations, this one was not dismissed. In fact, Nicki found herself in court as a defendant. For an employee of the Minneapolis Police Department, being the one on trial is an unusual, almost unthinkable circumstance. She was acquitted, and the arrest was expunged from her record. At the trial over custody of Callahan, Colleen testified against Nicki and claimed that she could tell the child was being abused. According to CBS, she also later told investigators that this is why
35:26 Speaker 01 she tried to kill Nicki, saying, "She was doing bad things to her child, and I wanted to help the little man." Despite all the allegations being investigated and then deemed unfounded, Colleen's family members were also under the impression that Tim's son was being abused by Nicki. And more of I think all of this just kind of shows. You know, what links Tim was willing to go to, you know, and all these allegations that he made. Now, they ended up being unfounded. Some of them were ludicrous, you know, claiming
36:04 Speaker 01 that this guy Donovan abused Callahan when he wasn't even in the same state, wasn't seeing him. But the other thing that struck me was that I think it's pretty clear. Tim was not only coaching his son or trying to coach him, but was also influencing Colleen at a very high level. I think he had her convinced that Callahan was being abused and that Nicki was a big part of it. I don't want to use the word brainwashing, but it almost seems that way.
36:46 Speaker 00 Well, it also seems that at every turn, Tim's lying, you know, from everything from these allegations against Nicki that all turn out to be false to, you know, lying, evading things the police are asking him in the investigation. So he's again, just further showing us what kind of person he is. He's not trustworthy. He's dishonest.
37:10 Speaker 01 Yeah, but to me, you know, it kind of all goes together, you know, controlling, manipulative. A person lies to get what they want. You could throw in some narcissistic traits and you know, you start to form this picture of a guy who, at least in my mind, is willing to do anything to get what he wants.
37:40 Speaker 00 Like Colleen, Tim was also taken into custody, charged with attempted first degree premeditated murder and aiding an accomplice after the fact. According to CBS, Colleen eventually admitted to police that she was the one who shot Nicki, saying, "I took the truck and I drove over there and then I shot her." Colleen's involvement surprised Nicki. She had no idea why Colleen would want to kill her. Her gut instinct that Tim was involved was right, but she never would have suspected that Colleen had helped him. Colleen told detectives that she cut up and threw away the black clothing she wore during the murder attempt. The gun, which was Tim's, could have been anywhere. She had no idea what happened to it because Tim took the gun from her and he was the one who got rid of it.
38:25 Speaker 01 The trial for Tim Amacher began on November 3rd, 2022. This is just seven months after the attempted murder, which is incredibly fast for things to go to trial these days, but he asked for a speedy trial and he got one. The trial itself was pretty speedy, too. The defense rested without calling any witnesses and Tim didn't take the stand to testify in his own defense. After deliberating for just an hour, the jury found him guilty of premeditated attempted murder, as well as aiding Colleen Larson in the attempt. Nicki told the judge during her victim impact statement, "I can still feel the burning sensation and
39:09 Speaker 01 the utter fear of not being able to speak or to help myself. I truly thought I was dying that day." Before his sentencing, Tim gave a statement that took no accountability and blamed others, including Nicki, and focused on pointing out how broken the legal system is in our country. Judge Shereen Askelani wasn't buying any of it. She told Tim in court, "It appears that you have been promoting this false narrative about Ms. Ford for so long that you may actually believe it at this time." Tim was then sentenced to serve 18 years in prison. And it doesn't surprise me one bit, Mor, that, you know, when it
39:53 Speaker 01 comes to him making a statement, you know, he takes no accountability, he does nothing but blame others, he blames Nicki, and he talks about how broken the legal system is.
40:07 Speaker 01 It seems to be in line with everything that we've talked about, you know, regarding Tim Amacher. This guy's all about himself, wants to put the blame on everybody but him.
40:20 Speaker 00 And because he showed such a lack of remorse, to me, it's shocking that he got such a light sentence to me, 18 years for the attempted murder of his son's mom just doesn't seem appropriate. I think he should have gone, you know, even longer. I don't know what the judge could have sentenced him to, but to me, it just doesn't seem like a lot of time.
40:43 Speaker 01 Yeah, the, we don't know. The judge might have had, you know, her hands tied regarding the length of time, but I'm kind of with you. Now, 18 years is a long time, but most likely, a person is not going to serve the entire sentence. I would have been happy if it was longer, but that's pretty true for me in most cases.
41:11 Speaker 00 Colleen wasn't Tim's first choice to be his hitman. Looking through cellphone data, investigators found that just two months before the shooting, Tim offered one of his friends $50,000 to kill Nicki. When no one would take him up on his offer, he turned his efforts towards convincing Colleen to do it. Her attorney, Daniel Atkins, called Tim Amacher "an abusive, manipulative, egotistical, and controlling man." It would have been easy to go to trial and attempt to blame Tim for everything, but unlike Tim, Colleen held herself accountable for her actions. She pleaded guilty to first degree premeditated attempted murder. Having her attorney read a statement for her, she said, "Your Honor, I stand before you with the utmost respect for the decision to come. I accept all the
41:56 Speaker 00 consequences for my actions. I understand and want to atone for what I have done. A simple apology cannot cover the long-term damages that I have caused." According to kare11.com, she didn't ask for any leniency. Instead, she said, "I deserve prison time."
42:13 Speaker 01 And that's kind of amazing to me. You have someone who's pretty young and yet knows that they did something terribly wrong and is owning up to it in a way that Tim Amacher could never do. You know, his first instinct was to blame everyone else. Colleen, for the terrible thing that she did, you do have to give her some credit for stepping up and saying, I know I did something wrong and I accept all the consequences.
42:51 Speaker 00 And Colleen was an adult, so obviously she knew right from wrong. But at the same time, had she put some blame on Tim, I don't know that it would have been unfounded because I think he did have control over her and maybe she would have never done this had she not been in that relationship. So it was good to see her at least hold herself responsible for this crime.
43:16 Speaker 01 But I think you're making a good point. This is probably not a woman who would have done this on her own. You know, she was controlled and manipulated by Tim into doing it, but still, she could have made the decision not to. Colleen, who was then 25, received a sentence just one and a half years shorter than Tim's and only one year fewer than the maximum possible sentence for the crime. She was sentenced to serve 16 and a half years in prison in total. It might seem surprising that their sentences were so similar since only one of them took any responsibility for the attempted murder and Tim even continued to blame others and maintain his innocence.
44:02 Speaker 01 After all, the whole thing was Tim's idea. Colleen's father, Wayne Larson, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that he believes that to make her snap, there had to be extreme pressure on her. Judge Askelany felt that Colleen was only sorry for how it affected her and her family and not for what she had actually done. In court, the judge said that Colleen showed no remorse for almost taking someone's life. The only remorse is for the impact this has had on her loved ones and on her life. And I get that. That's something that I think you see a lot when it comes time for a defendant to speak,
44:45 Speaker 01 especially after they've been convicted. You know, are they really sorry about what they did? Or are they sorry that they got caught and that they're, they're going to be spending a large chunk of their life in prison? And I often think it's the latter, but I don't know about it in the, in the case of Colleen. The judge seemed to think so.
45:07 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think most importantly, the judge pointed out that Colleen stated that she doesn't know what she would do differently. I think it's that statement there that maybe told the judge, hey, she's not truly sorry about this, even though she had made those statements that she was. And despite knowing that she'll end up in prison for their plan, Colleen had still not cut off contact with Tim and her feelings toward him hadn't changed. Judge Ascolani explained that Colleen was still communicating her love for him and even expressing that she wants a future with him. Nicki told CBS of Colleen, she was in this delusional fantasy land where she thinks, you know, if I wasn't around, that they could run off into the sunset with Callahan and
45:52 Speaker 00 be a happy little family. Donovan told kare11.com, I don't know what's worse, a vindictive ex who manipulates someone else to kill someone, or a vulnerable stranger who blindly agrees to take someone's life without a second thought and zero remorse. Both are incredibly dangerous. Both are equally culpable.
46:12 Speaker 01 And so, you know, more of I said earlier, you have to give Colleen at least a little bit of credit for owning up to her actions. But you know, maybe I was wrong about that because the judge doesn't seem to to feel the same way. And when you look at some of the things that came out afterwards, I get it. And when you say, I don't know what I would have done differently. I mean, that's really saying a lot. Because I think, you know, if you were really sorry, you would say, if I could go back, I wouldn't do it at all.
46:46 Speaker 00 Yeah, it really seems like it was that statement there that the judge decided, you know, I need to punish her almost as much as she's being punished.
46:55 Speaker 01 But even if Colleen loved him and was head over heels for him, how could she so foolishly have agreed to commit a murder for him? Did Tim really have that much influence or control over her? One woman who dated Tim, who wishes to remain anonymous, told CBS that it was a high to be around Tim. I definitely feel like I was willing to do whatever I could to make him approve of me and want to be with me. That seems pretty frightening that Tim had that much sway or pull with the women in his life. And maybe that's why he was with those women. He felt as though he could manipulate and control them. And I do more
47:39 Speaker 01 really get the sense that Tim Amacher was this master manipulator. We've already talked about, you know, how controlling he was. And it wasn't just with Nicki. It appears as though he was this way with everyone in his life.
48:00 Speaker 00 And he's got a long established pattern of doing this kind of stuff. So I think there's, you know, a real clear image of what he's like and how he came to have this control over these women. Even with both Tim and Colleen behind bars, Nicki Lenway still lives in fear. She'll always be looking behind her, wondering if someone is waiting to hunt her down. She told kare11.com, speaking about Tim, that she fears that him losing this battle will only fuel his rage further. She added, "I'm so glad that at least I had the courage to leave and want something better for myself and for my son." It may be a long shot, but perhaps it's not absurd for Nicki to be worried about Tim's
48:42 Speaker 00 potential retribution, because Tim Amacher could be released as early as 2034 with credit for good behavior. That's only nine years from now. Hopefully, he's not released that early, and if he is, it's only after he's been rehabilitated and isn't a threat to Nicki or anyone else.
49:00 Speaker 01 Nicki married Donovan Ford, and they had their first child together just months after the trial. It wasn't an easy recovery for Nicki. She can talk again now, but the damage to her vocal cords has left her unable to sing. All of this suffering was at the hands of the father of her child, someone who supposedly once loved her in an ongoing case of domestic abuse. If you or someone you know are experiencing domestic violence, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 to speak with someone who can help. All calls are free and confidential.
49:43 Speaker 01 You can also visit the hotline.org. So, Morf, as we wrap this case up, you obviously you feel for Nicki, because even though she survived, she went through a lot. I'm sure she's still going through a lot, physically, psychologically, all of that cannot be easy to deal with. Now, she did marry Donovan. They had their first child together, so that's, you know, some great news, but you feel for her, because her life was changed dramatically.
50:22 Speaker 01 And I think one of us said it earlier, that she's always looking over her shoulder, wondering if someone's out to get her. And how could you not have that feeling after being ambushed and shot multiple times?
50:38 Speaker 01 I don't know that that's a feeling that's gonna go away all that quickly.
50:43 Speaker 00 Yeah, I really feel for her because she's got to put all this behind her. Maybe she's getting counseling for what happened to her and and trying to heal not just the physical wounds, but the emotional and mental wounds. And then she has to deal with the fact that this guy could be out on the street in nine years. And is she going to have to deal with him coming back looking for revenge? So, you know, I feel bad for trying to move forward, but then having the the possibility that she may have to deal with this guy in the future.
51:19 Speaker 01 And, you know, the the thing that strikes me about these types of cases is that so often they involve a guy who is super controlling, very manipulative, narcissistic, only seems to really care about himself. You know, that's such a common theme in a lot of these types of cases. Wants everything for themselves, custody, not having to pay money and doesn't care who they have to hurt to get what they want.
51:59 Speaker 01 And I get it, you know, those situations are not ideal for anyone, whether it's a divorce or in this case, you know, a custody battle. And this one, you know, went a little further in the fact that they had this no contact order that caused supervised visitations that, you know, Tim had to pay for. But, you know, let's face it, it was his own actions that kind of led to that. And I think he thought of it as, wow, I can't believe they're doing this to me. When in reality, I felt like he did that part to himself.
52:38 Speaker 00 Yeah, I don't think there's anybody to blame in this story besides Tim and his actions and his decisions, how everything played out. And again, he was in control of things. He could have just accepted the court's decisions, honored them, and gone on to have maybe a better relationship with his son eventually. As he got older, maybe his freedom would have been, you know, a little bit more with his son, maybe have some more visitations as he demonstrated that he was able to be a better father and be able to be trusted. But he chose to go a different route. And now he has probably no relationship with his son.
53:19 Speaker 01 And I don't know if he ever will have one. I think, you know, as a son, pretty tough to come to terms with your father who tried to kill your mother, you know, even if he gets out later on. I can't imagine Callahan really wanting to have a lot to do with him.
53:41 Speaker 00 Well, if he does get out, hopefully he is rehabilitated and has shown remorse for what happened. And maybe he can try and be a better person.
53:50 Speaker 01 Well, that's, that's all he can do, right? That's the, the goal. Now, he could go the other way and remain self-centered, vindictive, and, and get out and, you know, come up with some other plot or plan to get back at Nikki. And, and like you said, more, I'm sure that's a big concern for her. And it will be even more concerning as it gets closer to him potentially getting out. But for now, he's right where he needs to be. That's it for our episode on Nikki Linway. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out,
54:32 Speaker 01 leave us a rating, a review. Also, keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the Criminology Podcast really helps us out.
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54:56 Speaker 01 So that's it for another episode of Criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike And Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.
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