The shooting killing of his nephew was planned so that the former star of the St. Louis-based reality television program “Welcome to Sweetie Pie” could receive a life insurance payout.
At the sentencing hearing for the March 2016 murder of his 21-year-old nephew, Andre Montgomery Jr., James “Tim” Norman remained silent. Both guys have appeared in the popular OWN reality series about the family’s St. Louis-area soul food restaurant.
Norman’s counsel provided several letters from loved ones and friends pleading for forgiveness, including one from Norman’s mother, Robbie Montgomery, who is also the creator of the Sweetie Pie eateries.
“I don’t know whether Tim did what he was accused and convicted of,” wrote Robbie Montgomery, the victim’s grandmother. “He is still the baby I bore, and I love him as every mother involved loves their child.”
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According to the prosecution, Norman obtained a $450,000 life insurance policy on Montgomery and planned to lead him to a street in St. Louis, where a second man shot him.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, some members of Andre Montgomery’s family, including his mother, Michell Griggs, requested that Norman receive a life sentence. He received two life sentences from U.S. District Judge John A. Ross, who described it as “a cold-blooded, very premeditated, planned execution of your nephew.”
In September, Norman was found guilty of conspiring to conduct murder for pay, murder for hire, and fraud conspiracy. Travell Anthony Hill acknowledged shooting Montgomery for $5,000. Hill, 31, of St. Louis, was given a 32-year prison term in October.
Terica Taneisha Ellis, now 39, of Memphis, Tennessee, was given a three-year jail term after pleading guilty to accepting $10,000 from Norman in exchange for finding Montgomery and informing Hill of his whereabouts.
Waiel “Wally” Rebhi Yaghnam, an insurance agent, was the fourth person who assisted Norman in making false claims on Montgomery’s life insurance and other insurance policies. He received a three-year prison sentence.
