MINNEAPOLIS — As Minneapolis police detectives showed Tim Amacher photographs of the black truck driven by the person who shot the mother of his child, Amacher — the Twin Cities taekwondo master charged with arranging the attempted hit — interrupted the investigators.
"That's not my truck. There's no Superman logo," Amacher told the detectives in an interview on the day he was arrested, April 28, 2022.
Amacher claimed his black 2022 Dodge Ram had a Superman decal on the side that would have been visible on surveillance footage.
But prosecutors in Amacher's trial for first-degree attempted murder showed the jury surveillance video from early the morning after the shooting that appeared to show Amacher attaching the decal.
They showed the jury multiple images of his truck parked at his house and taekwondo studio the day of the shooting without the decal, and multiple images the day after the shooting with the decal. Prosecutors believe that is proof that Amacher attempted to help his former student and current girlfriend Colleen Larson plan — and get away with — the crime.
Nicki Lenway survived the point-blank shooting and has recovered, although she has permanent scars. Lenway, who works as a crime scene investigator for the Minneapolis Police Department, testified in the trial.
Larson is separately charged with first-degree attempted murder and scheduled to go on trial in January. When investigators asked Amacher whether Larson might have been the shooter, Amacher scoffed.
"She doesn't have it in her bones to do it," Amacher said.
The 24-year-old Larson moved in with Amacher at age 18 and they started officially dating a few years after that, according to statements they both gave to police. Larson met Amacher as a young teen in his taekwondo studio, and Amacher trained her until Larson earned her black belt.
In the police interrogation, investigators showed Amacher GPS and phone data that showed Larson drove his truck from the studio to their Saint Paul home. Then Larson's phone stayed at the house while the truck almost immediately drove to the scene of the shooting, according to the data.
"That’s because she was at home. I can show you videos from my house," Amacher said.
"There’s no doubt your truck is involved in this. Somehow your truck leaves your house almost immediately and goes to do the shooting," MPD Sgt. James Jensen replied. "Who do you think took your truck from your house and went to shoot Nicole?"
"I don’t know. I have no idea," Amacher said.
Prosecutors showed the jury that Amacher remotely deleted two videos from his home surveillance video system from the time investigators believe Larson left for the shooting and then returned.
"I don’t have a motive," Amacher told the detectives, who then began inquiring into his bitter custody battle with Lenway. Amacher told them that he'd been talking to the press to bring his issues to light, rather than handle them with violence.
Senior Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Patrick Lofton then read an email to the jury that was sent by Larson to a local news outlet just hours before the shooting. She vented about Amacher's custody case, claiming he is being made out to be the bad guy because he is a person of color, and pleading with someone to investigate Lenway instead.
The interrogation video was played for the jury with Sgt. Jensen on the witness stand. Prosecutors said he was their final witness, but they did not finish direct examination before testimony ended for the day.
Judge Shereen Askalani decided to put the trial on hold until the Monday after Thanksgiving. If Amacher is to take the stand in his own defense, it would happen early that week.
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