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An attempted murder trial for taekwondo is underway A master accused a Minneapolis police forensic scientist of plotting to ambush and shoot the mother of his child in an attempt to gain full custody of their son.
Timothy Allen Amacher, 41, of St. Paul, denies charges of first-degree attempted murder and accessory after the fact in connection with the April 20 shooting death of Nicole Laneway outside a Minneapolis child care center. His former student and girlfriend, Colleen Purification Larson, 24, of Woodbury, fired the shots at point-blank range. She claims Amature pressured her to shoot Laneway, who survived and worked for the MPD.
Larson, who is out on bail, will have a separate trial in January. She is listed as one of 100 potential witnesses in the state to testify in Amacher’s trial, which began with opening statements Thursday in Hennepin County District Court. Lenway’s mother was inside the courtroom, while Amacher’s family members and Larson’s attorney sat across the aisle.
Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Jacob Fishman made the case for jurors that while Amacher was not the shooter, “he was the screenwriter, director and producer.”
Fishman said evidence will show that Larson used Amacher’s truck, which had Wi-Fi inside to connect to detectable cell towers, to drive to the day care center that day to shoot Laneway while Amacher was inside with their child.
“[Amacher] Being inside, he knew no one would suspect him. “He had no idea that Nicole Laneway would survive and be able to tell her story,” Fishman said.
Lenwe and Amacher met while taking taekwondo classes from him and began dating before moving in together in late 2013. Their relationship quickly hit the rocks, Fishman said. Amatuer regularly accused Laneway of cheating. “He’s an alcoholic, a jealous man, not a man of faith,” Fishman said.
Lenway moved in 2015 and discovered she was pregnant with their son, born in June 2016. Fishman said things changed dramatically in 2017 when Laneway got a new boyfriend, an MPD officer who was going to testify.
Fishman said that once Laneway got home, he unlocked her deadbolt and found Amature inside and rose petals everywhere. She tells him to leave. Another time she came home to find “Slut for Cops” painted across her garage door, Fishman said.
Fishman said Amacher began reporting “bogus” claims of child abuse and domestic violence in order to gain custody. Instead, Fishman said the authorities, who were inundated with these reports, said they were all fabricated and that Amacher could only oversee the visit.
Amacher’s attorney, Larry Reed, painted a different picture for his client. Reed said Amacher’s child abuse reports about their son were never investigated. “All of a sudden he’s bad for reporting,” Reid said.
Reid said Amacher filed a report with internal affairs alleging that Laneway admitted to fabricating evidence in the 2015 fatal shooting of Jammer Clark by Minneapolis police. “She’s still out there with no repercussions,” he said.
Reed cited an “excessive” list of witnesses and a lack of evidence. “There are no facts to support the state’s claim that my client aided and abetted anyone.”
“My client was falsely accused. He did nothing,” Reed said.
Fishman disagreed. The day before the attack, the amateur had gone to the Department of Motor Vehicles to collect vanity plates and remove existing plates. The black Dodge Ram truck owned by Amacher was without plates at the time of the shooting. He said amateur Superman stickers were put on the vehicle the day after the shooting and he told the police that the vehicle shown on surveillance was not his because it did not have the stickers.
Three .380-caliber bullets discharged from the crime scene matched those found at Amacher’s St. Paul home, Fishman said, and cellphone towers Larson found driving Amacher’s truck from a taekwondo studio in White Bear Lake to their home in St. Paul. to FamilyWise in Minneapolis, a supervised parent-exchange center.
A masked Larson waited in the laneway, then ran up to her in the parking lot with her hand outstretched and started shooting. A woman put pressure on Laneway’s neck, and she was rushed to the hospital, where she was intubated for five days.
Two shots hit the laneway around 7:30 p.m., around the time of Amature’s visit. He was booked into the Hennepin County Jail the following week.
Fishman said Amacher told authorities: “This is all a set-up by MPD to get me in trouble.”
According to court documents in their child custody case filed in 2018, Amacher has been charged with criminal mischief and parenting time has been suspended until further notice. The court found that this was in the best interest of the child.
Prosecutors called only one witness to testify Thursday, FBI agent Richard Fenner, who shared with jurors his findings from cellphone tower analysis in the case.
Testimony is expected to resume on Monday.
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