Who Wanted To Kill Nicki Lenway?

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Speaker 4 Where's the victim? Who's shot?

Speaker 4 Who is shot? Where's the victim?

Speaker 5 On April 20th, 2022, my life changed forever.

Speaker 4 So we've got EMS coming right now.

Speaker 5 I was shot at point-blank range two times.

Speaker 6 Right here, right here.

Speaker 4 This is a victim, right here.

Speaker 4 First name, Nikki, gunshot wounds to the Niagara.

Speaker 8 It's a miracle she's alive. It's a miracle if she wasn't killed.

Speaker 6 You're breathing okay? Okay.

Speaker 6 All right.

Speaker 5 Someone wanted me dead.

Speaker 5 Honestly, it was a normal day. I had worked the night before.
I worked the overnight shift.

Speaker 5 I'm a forensic scientist for the Minneapolis Police Department.

Speaker 5 After getting my child to school, I slept.

Speaker 5 I picked him up from school, and then he had a visit with his father that night.

Speaker 10 What would you do while he's visiting with his dad?

Speaker 5 So I typically would run errands, go grocery shopping, or do the things that were easier to do without my child.

Speaker 8 When it's time for her to pick up her son, she steps out of her car and starts walking like dozens of other times that she's done this.

Speaker 5 I'm halfway in between my vehicle and the door and this person comes running up from behind me.

Speaker 5 Shots were being fired. I fell to the ground and the shooter stands over me and continues to try to shoot.
I felt my neck and then could see the blood.

Speaker 13 I was just driving home and I saw a person run up to another person and then I heard two bangs and that other person collapsed.

Speaker 13 It maybe looked like a robbery or something.

Speaker 10 There was so fast.

Speaker 16 That was the first thought. This must have been a robbery that was gone wrong.

Speaker 7 Was this a drive-by?

Speaker 17 Mistaken identity or she mugged. Maybe something related to work.

Speaker 10 When you do work for the police department, did you think it might have something to do do with work?

Speaker 5 You know, I know a lot of people asked me that. I knew that this could happen,

Speaker 5 but I didn't want to believe it would.

Speaker 8 Whoever did that knows she was coming to pick up a kid.

Speaker 10 Did you recognize? No.

Speaker 9 I didn't.

Speaker 10 Could you tell the gender? Was it male or female?

Speaker 13 So I thought it was male.

Speaker 5 I was very sure it was a female shooter.

Speaker 15 What is going on? Who could have done this?

Speaker 20 Erin Moriarty reports who wanted Miki Lenway dead.

Speaker 21 I was coming up and I saw the two people and then all of a sudden I heard bang, bang.

Speaker 10 As Emily Clancy later told police, she couldn't quite believe what she saw and heard on the evening of April 20th, 2022, as she drove home from having dinner with a friend.

Speaker 22 I stopped right here at this intersection.

Speaker 10 As soon as the light turned green, Emily sped through the intersection and pulled up next to the victim.

Speaker 15 I opened the door. I said, are you okay?

Speaker 10 And she said, no, I've been shot.

Speaker 10 Nicole Nikki Lenway Ford was shot and bleeding in the parking lot of FamilyWise, a parenting center. The 33-year-old was no stranger to violence.

Speaker 10 She worked as a forensic scientist for the Minneapolis Police Department. And right after being shot, she called 911.

Speaker 23 911, what is the address of the emergency?

Speaker 24 She's barely breathing, could barely say any words other than her name.

Speaker 13 And I said, get in the car.

Speaker 10 Emily took over the 911 call.

Speaker 13 I could see that there was blood coming out of her neck.

Speaker 10 And followed the dispatcher's instructions.

Speaker 13 They said, put a jacket or something around her neck. And I said,

Speaker 13 yeah, I have one right here.

Speaker 10 Within minutes, first responders arrived.

Speaker 4 Were you the one I called?

Speaker 4 Where's the victim?

Speaker 10 The dramatic scene was captured on police body cameras.

Speaker 4 What's going on?

Speaker 21 She was scared.

Speaker 13 Really scared.

Speaker 21 Got pressure on the neck. She got shot in the arm as well.

Speaker 13 She was in a lot of pain. She was having a hard time breathing.
I just looked her in the eyes and I said, Nikki, you got this. You got this.
Just stay with me.

Speaker 7 I don't think we can ever recreate how powerful of a moment that was.

Speaker 7 I just wanted her to know that she wasn't alone in this.

Speaker 13 And if that was the only thing I could give to this poor girl,

Speaker 13 like,

Speaker 13 that would mean something to me.

Speaker 6 Okay. All right, dear.
You walk, we're gonna get outside, we're gonna go into the animal.

Speaker 4 Bring you to the hospital, all right?

Speaker 10 One of the most surprising things about the video is that you had to walk to the ambulance.

Speaker 10 I couldn't believe it. Were you aware of how badly injured you were?

Speaker 21 I don't think so.

Speaker 5 I think I was in shock, maybe.

Speaker 5 I didn't realize how bad it was.

Speaker 4 Try not to move your head left or right, okay?

Speaker 10 Nicole was loaded into the ambulance and soon lost consciousness.

Speaker 27 Breaking news tonight, a woman is in the hospital after sleeping.

Speaker 10 The news spread quickly that a Minneapolis police employee had been shot. Nicole's then-boyfriend, MPD officer Donovan Ford, was at home.

Speaker 10 What is it like to get that phone call that the woman you love has just been shot?

Speaker 26 I had no words.

Speaker 26 I went flying down to the hospital.

Speaker 6 I was panicked.

Speaker 10 When Donovan arrived at the Hennepin County Medical Center, he wasn't prepared for what he saw.

Speaker 26 She was basically unconscious. She had tubes down her throat and all that.

Speaker 10 When you did finally get to talk to a doctor, what did they tell you?

Speaker 26 She's in bad shape. We're going to do our best to, you know,

Speaker 26 save her life essentially.

Speaker 10 Nicole had a perforated lung, severe damage to her vocal cords, and a bullet lodged between two of her ribs. She was in critical condition.

Speaker 26 I'm in law enforcement, when they say critical, that means essentially they're close to the end.

Speaker 26 And where she was shot, typically people don't survive.

Speaker 26 I was praying

Speaker 18 a lot.

Speaker 10 As doctors rushed to save Nicole, outside the family-wise parenting center, her colleagues at the police police department got to work.

Speaker 4 Can you throw up some tape? We've got casings right over here.

Speaker 10 On the ground, they found three discharge bullet casings and blood.

Speaker 10 They quickly learned that Nicole had been at FamilyWise to pick up her son, who was on a scheduled visit with his father, her ex, Tim Omaker.

Speaker 10 Officers caught up with Tim as he was finishing up his visit with their five-year-old son, Callahan. He had been at the center for hours.

Speaker 1 And then you've been in the back with your son?

Speaker 11 Yes, he's

Speaker 10 in the community. Tim Omaker was well-liked and a respected local taekwondo instructor.
Tim seemed worried about Nicole.

Speaker 16 Is she okay? She'll be fine.

Speaker 23 I mean, she's stable right now, but it's really serious.

Speaker 10 Andy had an idea about what may have happened.

Speaker 10 He thought it had something to do with the case she worked.

Speaker 29 She was afraid because she thought people were driving by her house. She changed her last name to her middle name.
She shut down her social media.

Speaker 29 She had drive-bys of Minneapolis come into her house all the time. She had me bring over

Speaker 29 my shotgun to her house.

Speaker 29 She was in fear.

Speaker 10 But police didn't find any obvious connections to Nicole's cases.

Speaker 10 They searched Tim's Jeep and asked if he owned any other cars. This is your only car.

Speaker 23 No, no, I have a Doss challenger too.

Speaker 10 And then then let him go.

Speaker 10 Police continue to look for evidence, canvassing the building and surrounding area, searching for security footage, and discovered the cameras from FamilyWise, a bank across the street, and an elementary school around the corner had captured every second.

Speaker 10 The first images are Nicole arriving to pick up her son, then someone dressed all in black running her down from behind.

Speaker 10 The moment the shots were fired, the shooter fleeing on foot and then driving off in a black Dodge Ram truck.

Speaker 10 But the truck had no license plates, and police couldn't tell who was driving.

Speaker 10 The next day, Nicole regained consciousness, and she told police that she was sure she knew who was responsible.

Speaker 9 I

Speaker 5 just

Speaker 5 knew it had something to do with Tim. I just knew.

Speaker 25 Well, of course, I'm going to be the first guy you guys look at.

Speaker 5 I didn't know how he was involved, but he was involved.

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Speaker 10 Taekwondo.

Speaker 10 The tenets of the Korean martial art include courtesy, self-control, integrity.

Speaker 10 The most skilled like Tim Amaker are called master.

Speaker 10 Nicole would come to believe that Tim was somehow involved in her shooting, but in the world of Taekwondo, he was a very good instructor.

Speaker 10 Pat and Claire Zelmer were part of Amaker's tight group of friends and also familiar with his World Taekwondo Academy.

Speaker 15 People would definitely refer to him as Master Amaker

Speaker 15 within his school, but they would also, if they were still students and they were friendly outside of the school,

Speaker 15 he was still Master Amaker.

Speaker 10 People gravitated to Amaker, his physical skill, business savvy, easy confidence, a leader who seemed to have it all figured out.

Speaker 17 He's charismatic, driven, intense.

Speaker 14 He can draw people in and make them feel this connection with him.

Speaker 10 And his reputation continued after dark. The mayor of nightlife here?

Speaker 16 I would say that's a fair assessment.

Speaker 32 Very much so. Very much so.

Speaker 10 Charlie Detloff knew Tim well before he met Nicole and witnessed firsthand the power of Tim's personality.

Speaker 32 So I moved back here in about 2001.

Speaker 10 And was Tim Omaker already living next door?

Speaker 20 He was.

Speaker 32 He was living next door, but his mother on the left.

Speaker 10 Tim was a helpful neighbor with a style and appeal you couldn't miss.

Speaker 32 He loved fashion, loved the right jeans and the right shirt and the right boot and always had to be the best.

Speaker 10 Was he a good friend to you?

Speaker 32 Yeah, he was a great friend.

Speaker 10 And where was Tim living?

Speaker 32 Tim's bedroom was in the back corner here.

Speaker 10 And according to Charlie, there was a waiting list of women who wanted into Omaker's bedroom.

Speaker 32 Coming and going, yeah, they would pull up right here. The front light here was

Speaker 8 purple.

Speaker 32 And if that light was on, then the women knew that they could go in.

Speaker 10 Are you serious?

Speaker 32 I'm not kidding. It was almost like the, you know, the red light district.

Speaker 10 Juggling a lot of women at once?

Speaker 7 Yes, of course.

Speaker 17 Because it seemed like there was a different girl every night.

Speaker 10 What did women see in him?

Speaker 15 I don't know, because I didn't see it.

Speaker 10 But many other women seemed to see much in Tim Amaker. How did you meet Tim?

Speaker 5 I met Tim by going to his gym.

Speaker 10 And when did you start dating?

Speaker 5 Shortly after.

Speaker 10 Nicole was responsible and grounded. Tim's close friends quickly understood the attraction.

Speaker 32 There was something special about her. She's smart.
She's pretty. She's outgoing.

Speaker 16 She's got it all.

Speaker 5 At first, I actually really wasn't interested, but he was very persistent. You know, he just kind of wore me down and I kind of, I started enjoying our time together.

Speaker 22 And he was older.

Speaker 9 Right.

Speaker 5 He had experienced more life than me and it was exciting.

Speaker 10 They moved in together in early 2014, but friends say Tim still wasn't faithful. Did you try to warn her about Tim and his women?

Speaker 15 About his womanizing? Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 5 There were a lot of red flags.

Speaker 10 A lot of jealousy?

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 7 They fought constantly.

Speaker 17 It was almost like a perpetual argument verging on a fight.

Speaker 10 Did you ever see him violent or hurtful toward her?

Speaker 7 I did not, no.

Speaker 10 But Nicole would tell investigators Amiker was violent.

Speaker 5 I mean, one night he threw me up against the wall holding my neck.

Speaker 10 Why did you stay, even as long as you did?

Speaker 5 I ask myself that all the time.

Speaker 9 I

Speaker 5 don't know. I think I felt trapped.

Speaker 5 And, you know, he just got into my brain so badly.

Speaker 10 She says that on a trip to Las Vegas, an angry alcohol-fueled Tim threw a lamp across the room.

Speaker 5 It was terrifying. I locked myself in the bathroom.

Speaker 10 September 2015, Nicole, then 26 years old, had more than enough. But she says now that breaking away from Tim was anything but easy.

Speaker 5 I packed my bags and I started walking out. And he pulled me back into the house by my ponytail and dragged me into the bedroom.
And after that, I was like, I am done.

Speaker 10 Nicole moved out and an 18-year-old student of Tim's moved in, renting out one of his rooms. Her name, Colleen Larson.

Speaker 16 Seemed absolutely lovely.

Speaker 32 Nice girl. I think she's very smart.

Speaker 32 Probably book smart, not street smart.

Speaker 10 Colleen had begun studying with Amuker when she was barely a teenager. Tim's friends say she seemed infatuated with him.

Speaker 17 He's her instructor. He's her master, you know, for 10 plus years at this point.

Speaker 15 It just seemed like she was, like this little puppy dog wanting to impress him.

Speaker 17 Like a child and an adult in that respect. Yes.

Speaker 10 They say Colleen seemed delighted to be living with a man she had idolized since she was young.

Speaker 10 As for Nicole, she hoped to have no further contact with Tim, but very soon, they all got some unexpected news.

Speaker 5 I found out I was pregnant and he wanted me to get rid of the baby.

Speaker 5 And I just told him I couldn't. And I was in a state of panic.

Speaker 8 Okay, right now, I'm going to ask you if I can search you for weapons real quick, okay?

Speaker 3 For weapons? Yeah.

Speaker 10 Detectives needed to know all about Nicole's relationship with their son's father, Tim Omaker.

Speaker 12 Oh, it has weapons, dude.

Speaker 1 There was a shooting that happened.

Speaker 10 The investigation would track a trail that led back to the fall of 2015 when Nicole first learned she was pregnant with a taekwondo master she alleged had abused her.

Speaker 5 It just got more and more volatile.

Speaker 15 We were so excited for them to be having a baby. That's a momentous and a happy thing

Speaker 7 to normal people.

Speaker 10 But the only thing normal was the irrepressible joy of a new mother. She named him Callahan.

Speaker 5 He was born on June 20th of 2016.

Speaker 5 He was a big boy and

Speaker 5 he was

Speaker 9 perfect.

Speaker 18 And then

Speaker 9 she gave him the last name Varmaker.

Speaker 10 Nicole was the primary caregiver, but sometimes Cal stayed with his dad. Did you feel that co-parenting was working?

Speaker 5 I felt like it could.

Speaker 10 But he wasn't always reliable, says Nicole. When she needed him most, Tim was halfway around the world.

Speaker 17 Tim went to Thailand and totally bailed on Christmas and New Year's.

Speaker 10 Tim may not have been a hands-on dad, but someone else was ready to step in. Colleen Larson, his longtime Taekwondo student, who was renting that room in Tim's house.

Speaker 32 She was very kind to Callahan.

Speaker 28 She was a good caregiver to him.

Speaker 10 And with unpredictable hours with the Minneapolis Police Department, the arrangements seemed to work for Nicole.

Speaker 5 My son really seemed to like her.

Speaker 10 When the once-young taekwondo student turned 18, her relationship with Tim Amaker quietly changed, according to Charlie.

Speaker 10 Did you get the sense he was in love with Colleen?

Speaker 7 No, not at all.

Speaker 32 I think she was very much in love with him.

Speaker 10 Charlie says Tim called the relationship easy.

Speaker 32 She would call him master, call him the house, yep, master omicre, and ultimately kind of became,

Speaker 32 you know, like a maid or a servant to him.

Speaker 10 Then in the summer of 2017, Nicole's life took a dramatic turn. Do you remember when you first met Nicole?

Speaker 1 Absolutely.

Speaker 10 It was the kind of love at first sight that only a cop on the beat could have.

Speaker 26 First time I ever saw her was on a burglary call. I definitely took notice at that point.

Speaker 10 Why?

Speaker 26 She's gorgeous.

Speaker 10 And to Donovan Ford, intriguing.

Speaker 26 She processed the scene.

Speaker 10 So she was a member of the real CSI. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5 He knew that I was a single mom, and he was divorced.

Speaker 10 When I just mentioned his name, you lit up. Why is that?

Speaker 5 He is truly the love of my life.

Speaker 5 He has been the biggest blessing to myself and my son.

Speaker 10 And he's been through a lot with you, hasn't he? He has.

Speaker 10 Nicole's already difficult relationship with Tim only got worse when Tim discovered she was dating Donovan, who was fast becoming part of Callahan's life.

Speaker 10 Did the way he dealt with Cal change after you started dating Donovan.

Speaker 9 It did.

Speaker 5 He wanted him all the time.

Speaker 10 And Tim didn't want Donovan around his son. He accused Donovan of saying negative things about Colleen.
Then Tim called Donovan and left this angry message.

Speaker 23 Man up for once in your life and quit hiding behind your badge.

Speaker 26 And then I started getting text messages.

Speaker 10 Like this one, where Tim claimed Donovan was destroying his family.

Speaker 10 It ignited what can only be called a war that would grow treacherous, and it wouldn't be a short one. How would you describe the last six years?

Speaker 5 It has been chaos.

Speaker 10 Nicole claims Tim tried to destroy her.

Speaker 5 Like, I'm going to take everything from you.

Speaker 10 Did you believe him?

Speaker 5 I did.

Speaker 10 The Black Belt's new weapon of choice was the legal system.

Speaker 32 It was the relentless

Speaker 32 number of motions before the court.

Speaker 10 He reported Nicole to Child Protection Services multiple times, accusing her and Donovan of physical and sexual abuse. Children's services show up at your house.

Speaker 9 Yes.

Speaker 5 I had them in and out of my home for three years.

Speaker 10 Tim filed for custody of Cal, and Nicole filed for an order of protection from Tim.

Speaker 10 Not a single one of the allegations against Nicole or Donovan was found to have substance. Did you see anything that concerned you or made you think that Cal had been abused?

Speaker 7 No, nothing.

Speaker 15 No, he was a well-loved child.

Speaker 10 But Tim didn't stop there. He also filed complaints to the police department about Donovan.
You were investigated then?

Speaker 10 And what was the finding? Nothing happened. It continued? Yep.

Speaker 26 Allegation after allegation.

Speaker 10 And then in May of 2018, Amiker alleged Nicole ran over his foot with her car.

Speaker 5 I was charged with the domestic assault.

Speaker 10 The proud crime scene investigator was now a humiliated defendant.

Speaker 5 I never thought I would be at the defense table.

Speaker 10 How long was the jury out on that?

Speaker 5 Less than 15 minutes. I was found not guilty.

Speaker 10 But the battle for Callahan raged on and the child got caught in the middle.

Speaker 5 You could tell he was very conflicted.

Speaker 32 Callahan was a pawn. It wasn't about Callahan or Callahan's well-being.
It was about inflicting the maximum amount of damage on Nikki.

Speaker 10 In the fall of 2020, the trial for custody of Callahan began. When it was over, the judge awarded Nicole sole legal and physical custody.
Tim was allowed just one supervised visit a week.

Speaker 10 Tim Omaker, once a champion, was now boxed into a corner. He was allowed no contact alone with his son, and cops thought that might be a motive for him wanting Nicole dead.

Speaker 11 I've been here the whole time.

Speaker 12 I don't know what happened off there.

Speaker 10 Police would hone in on the crime scene. Remember that Black Dodge Ram truck that the shooter drove off in?

Speaker 10 Turns out Tim had lied to the cops. He owned a truck just like it.

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Speaker 16 A good homicide detective will tell you it's just good to know what vehicles anybody owns, whether they're a witness, whether they're a suspect, whether they're a victim.

Speaker 16 Because people use their vehicles, and that's how you can figure out things, that's how you can pursue leads.

Speaker 10 On the night of Nicole's shooting, Assistant Hennepin County attorneys Patrick Lofton and Jacob Fishman say that police were determined to find out who was driving that Black Dodge truck.

Speaker 8 A black Dodge Ram is a very, very common car.

Speaker 10 And authorities had asked Tim what he owned. Wait, what do you mean?

Speaker 26 This is your only car?

Speaker 23 No, no, I have a Dodge Challenger too.

Speaker 10 A Dodge Challenger sedan and this Jeep.

Speaker 10 But it turned out that Tim did have another vehicle. a black Dodge Ram truck that looked a lot like the one seen leaving the area after the shooting.

Speaker 16 That raised the alarm alarm bells for the Minneapolis Police Department.

Speaker 11 This is a picture right here.

Speaker 10 Police called Tim in for a second interview.

Speaker 29 That's not my truck.

Speaker 10 They showed him stills of the truck from that video. Seemingly unruffled, he insisted that it wasn't his.

Speaker 29 Those pictures were not pictures of my truck.

Speaker 10 Tim claimed his truck, unlike the one in the video, had a license plate and Superman decal stickers near both front doors.

Speaker 8 Where's a Superman logo?

Speaker 8 Case closed. Superman logo is not in the truck.
Couldn't have been me.

Speaker 25 I've been here the whole time.

Speaker 11 I don't know what happened up there. I'm not.

Speaker 10 What's more, he had an alibi. He was inside the Familywise Center when Nicole was shot.
So even if it was his truck, he couldn't be the driver.

Speaker 29 Who else has access to the truck? Colleen has access to it.

Speaker 10 Colleen Larson, Tim's former taekwondo student.

Speaker 12 Was she the only one?

Speaker 23 To my knowledge.

Speaker 10 To police, the pieces of the puzzle were coming together. Nicole had said she thought the shooter was a woman.

Speaker 23 Let me ask you this. Is there any reason why Colleen would want to shoot Nicole? Oh, hell no.
She wouldn't hurt anybody.

Speaker 10 Tim insisted Colleen was incapable of violence. And Colleen, who was also brought in for questioning, insisted she was nowhere near family-wise that night.

Speaker 16 She said that she came home from work, as usual, went inside, took a shower, and was there until Tim got home.

Speaker 10 But police didn't believe either one of them and turned to FBI's special agent Richard Fenner, a technology specialist.

Speaker 10 He discovered that Tim's truck had Wi-Fi and like a cell phone, creates a digital trail.

Speaker 38 We could track it much like we could at the cell phone.

Speaker 10 Fennern wanted to know everywhere Tim and Colleen went the day of the shooting. Their cell phones and the Black Dodge truck left plenty of digital breadcrumbs.

Speaker 38 With phones, with cars, whatever you have, they're going to tell you the truth. Their records always tell you the truth.

Speaker 10 On the afternoon of the shooting, Tim and Colleen were both at the Taekwondo studio. Around 4 p.m., Tim left to go to FamilyWise for the visit with his son.
He was driving the Jeep.

Speaker 10 Later, Colleen left the studio in the black truck to go home.

Speaker 10 How can you tell that?

Speaker 38 That's from the cell phone records.

Speaker 10 So not only the truck, but her cell phone. Correct.
Just after 7 p.m., Venner says the black truck left the couple's residence and headed straight to FamilyWise.

Speaker 8 Now we see that person who is walking right here. That is Colleen Larson.

Speaker 10 Colleen Larson did leave her house, and detectives placed her directly at the scene.

Speaker 8 She appears to be walking around, essentially scoping out the area. I believe that she is planning her next steps.

Speaker 10 A raid of the couple's house yielded more evidence, bullet casings matching the ones found at the crime scene.

Speaker 10 On April 28th, 2022, Colleen Larson was arrested. She was charged with attempted first-degree premeditated murder.

Speaker 10 But was Tim involved?

Speaker 10 Agent Fennard suspected that Tim had deliberately altered his truck's appearance to throw cops off his path.

Speaker 10 He discovered that several hours before the shooting, Tim had driven the black truck to a drive-through at a local Kentucky fried chicken.

Speaker 38 When we pull surveillance video, there's that same truck without the decal, without the license plate.

Speaker 10 For police, it was enough. Tim Amaker was arrested and charged with attempted first-degree premeditated murder and aiding an accomplice after the fact.

Speaker 8 When you do something to significantly further or assist in a crime, you are just as culpable as the person that actually pulls the trigger.

Speaker 10 Nicole was not surprised to hear that Tim had been arrested, but she she was shocked to find out about Colleen. Why would she shoot you?

Speaker 5 I don't know.

Speaker 10 This time, when Colleen was questioned by police, she broke down and confessed to shooting Nicole.

Speaker 10 And she says Tim was behind it.

Speaker 29 Whose idea was it to shoot Nicole?

Speaker 12 Him?

Speaker 29 So he asked you if you felt if you felt comfortable, would you shoot Nicole from him?

Speaker 29 Yes.

Speaker 10 Yes.

Speaker 10 She said she believed Tim's story that Nicole was abusing Callahan. He was doing bad things to the child, and I wanted to help the little man.

Speaker 10 After the shooting, she told police, Tim disposed of the gun.

Speaker 29 He just said he would take care of it. So you have no idea what he did with the gun.

Speaker 29 Not exactly know.

Speaker 10 Still, Tim continued to deny any involvement.

Speaker 13 Timothy Omaker and Colleen Larson are charged with attempted murder.

Speaker 10 On November 3rd, 2022, Tim Omaker's trial began. There were no cameras in the courtroom.

Speaker 10 Prosecutors knew that they had to show the jury that Nicole wasn't abusing her son and that it was Tim who had been victimizing her for a long time.

Speaker 8 What happened behind the scenes wasn't just this

Speaker 8 couple seconds of horror that Nicole had to suffer at FamilyWise. It was 10 years of hell that he put her through.

Speaker 10 Tim and his lawyers refused our request for an interview, but 48 Hours consultant and defense attorney Matthew Troiano reviewed their case for us.

Speaker 33 There's obviously no direct evidence of Tim's guilt. Zero.
He has a rock-solid alibi about where he was at the time that this happened.

Speaker 10 According to Troiano, Prosecutors needed to build their case by focusing on Tim's lies and his past treatment of Nicole because there was no smoking gun that directly tied Tim to the shooting.

Speaker 28 There is circumstantial evidence.

Speaker 33 The truck, the lies, those are all kind of circumstantial pieces that tie back to him.

Speaker 33 But there is no direct evidence of him specifically buying or doing or having something that led to this act.

Speaker 10 The defense called no witnesses to the stand. Triano thinks they were betting the prosecution just hadn't made its case.

Speaker 28 Where's Where's the proof?

Speaker 33 Where's the evidence?

Speaker 10 As the jury went out to deliberate, prosecutors were concerned.

Speaker 8 Of course, we were very worried.

Speaker 10 There's a chance this guy is going to walk.

Speaker 8 Absolutely.

Speaker 10 How nervous were you?

Speaker 5 Really nervous.

Speaker 20 Do you believe Colleen Larson acted on her own? See more evidence from the case at 48hours.com.

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Speaker 10 Those sacred tenets of Taekwondo.

Speaker 10 Self-control, integrity.

Speaker 10 Could the master win this battle?

Speaker 10 The jury took an hour to decide.

Speaker 5 He was found guilty.

Speaker 26 Guilty on all counts.

Speaker 10 Tim Omaker, guilty of premeditated attempted murder and aiding his accomplice, Colleen Larson.

Speaker 10 And how did you both feel about that? Relieved, joyous.

Speaker 17 And justice for Nikki.

Speaker 5 I almost didn't believe it. Finally, we had some type of closure.

Speaker 10 At sentencing, Nicole wanted Judge Shireen Escalani to hear all she endured. To protect her, the judge kept most of Nicole's statement off camera.

Speaker 4 Everything okay?

Speaker 6 Okay.

Speaker 10 But the memories of that point-blank moment will clearly never be forgotten.

Speaker 40 I can still feel the burning sensation and the utter fear of not being able to speak or to help myself.

Speaker 40 I truly thought I was dying that day.

Speaker 40 Even though I feel like the truth is starting to come to light, I still live in fear.

Speaker 10 Amiker, who'd refused to testify at his trial, now decided to speak. The The court allowed his plea for leniency to be heard and filmed.

Speaker 41 It is no secret how broken this system is.

Speaker 41 The main message that I felt called here to say

Speaker 25 goes as this:

Speaker 41 for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. But with me,

Speaker 41 it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.

Speaker 10 How would you describe his statement?

Speaker 5 Erratic. Blaming everybody else.
He was the victim and this happened to him.

Speaker 10 Did he show any kind of remorse? No.

Speaker 10 Judge Ascalani had no patience for Amiker and his claims that Nicole had been abusive.

Speaker 24 And it appears that you have been promoting this false narrative about Miss Ford for so long that you may actually believe it at this time.

Speaker 10 Then she sentenced him to 18 years in prison.

Speaker 10 Just four days later, Colleen Larson pleaded guilty. At her sentencing hearing, rather than speak for herself, Colleen had her attorney read a statement.

Speaker 10 She took full responsibility for all that had happened.

Speaker 37 Your Honor, I stand before you with the utmost respect for the decision to come. I accept all the consequences for my actions.
I understand and want to atone for what I have done.

Speaker 37 A simple apology cannot cover the long-term damages that I have caused.

Speaker 24 Anything additional from you at this time?

Speaker 40 No, Your Honor.

Speaker 17 Colleen's got a killer in her. She did it.
There's no question that she had the capacity.

Speaker 10 Colleen was sentenced to 16 and a half years for doing what prosecutors say was Amiker's bidding.

Speaker 5 I think she wanted his approval and his love so badly that she would do anything.

Speaker 5 And 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 be a happy little family

Speaker 10 but how does somebody convince an another

Speaker 10 person who's never committed a crime to shoot someone it's wild i

Speaker 15 love the answers to that because that's where we're stuck to.

Speaker 10 Attorney Matt Traiano wonders if Amiker has been controlling Colleen for years.

Speaker 33 Why would she do this? It's the fact that she had known this person since she's 12 years old.

Speaker 33 They had been in this kind of dominant, subservient relationship where he's the master, she's the student, he is the boss.

Speaker 10 This woman who once dated Amaker doesn't want to be named or have her face shown, but she says she knows firsthand the hold Amaker can have on the women in his life.

Speaker 15 Yes, it was a high when I was around him.

Speaker 10 And that you wanted to do whatever you could to hang on to that high? Yes.

Speaker 10 She says she was once under Amaker's spell, but is certain she would never kill for him. Still, she sees some of herself in Colleen Larson.

Speaker 15 And I feel like that was me.

Speaker 14 Yep, I definitely feel like I was willing to do whatever I could to make him approve of me and want to be with me.

Speaker 10 With good behavior, Tim Amaker could be out of prison by 2034.

Speaker 10 Do you think you'll ever feel truly safe again? No.

Speaker 10 You'll always have to be looking over your shoulder.

Speaker 5 I think so.

Speaker 10 It all still haunts Donovan. The shots fired.
The woman he loves fighting for her life. Do you still see that in your head? Absolutely.

Speaker 6 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 10 Still fear that you could lose her?

Speaker 12 Yeah.

Speaker 26 All the time.

Speaker 10 Yet, alongside the destruction,

Speaker 10 there are miracles in this story.

Speaker 9 Good to see you again. Good to see you, too.

Speaker 9 Almost exactly a year.

Speaker 21 Thank you.

Speaker 10 We asked for this one-of-a-kind reunion. Emily Clancy, who raced to help a stranger, saving Nicole's life.

Speaker 9 We are expecting a baby.

Speaker 9 Congratulations. Thank you.

Speaker 21 I'm so happy for you. Thank you.

Speaker 10 Donovan and Nicole, now husband and wife, had just gotten the good news.

Speaker 26 And I was like, are you serious? And she's like, yep.

Speaker 26 And then we're just hugging and happy.

Speaker 10 As for the child Nicole had with Tim Amaker. How old is Callahan now?

Speaker 5 He's six.

Speaker 10 Does he know that his dad

Speaker 10 tried to kill you?

Speaker 5 He does now.

Speaker 10 And how did he take that?

Speaker 5 Better than I thought he would.

Speaker 26 He's come out amazing. That's a miracle too.
Just him being able to deal with all the stuff he's been through and still be the kid he is.

Speaker 7 Thank you, Mill.

Speaker 7 Thank you.

Speaker 2 This is the story of the one.

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