James “Tim” Norman was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after arranging to have his nephew killed to collect an insurance payment, AP reports.
Both Tim Norman and his nephew Andre Montgomery Jr. appeared on the reality show “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s” based on their family’s St. Louis-based restaurant.
The aftermath of Montgomery’s shooting death was covered on the show, with Norman telling the camera crew about his loss. “We’ve lost a lot of family members here on this street,” he says.
According to prosecutors, “Norman took out a life insurance policy worth $450,000 on Montgomery and arranged to have him lured to a street in St. Louis,” where Travell Anthony Hill shot Montgomery in 2016, AP reports.
Hill was sentenced in October 2022 to 32 years in prison. Other people convicted in the murder-for-hire plot also include Terica Ellis– who admitted that Norman paid her $10,000 to advise Hill of Montgomery’s whereabouts– and Waiel Yaghnam, who helped Norman fraudulently apply for multiple insurance policies.
Robbie Montgomery– the victim’s grandmother, Norman’s mother, and the founder of Sweetie Pie’s– submitted a letter to the court asking for leniency in her son’s sentence.
“I don’t know whether Tim did what he was accused and convicted of,” Robbie Montgomery wrote. “He is still the baby that I bore, and I love him as every mother involved loves their child.”