On Friday, September 15, 2022, a federal jury found one of the former stars of the reality TV show “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s” guilty of orchestrating the shooting death of his nephew. The show was filmed in the St. Louis area.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the jury discussed for around 17 hours spread out over the course of three days before reaching a decision in the case of murder-for-hire brought against James “Tim” Norman.
He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, murder-for-hire, and murder-for-hire in conjunction with mail and wire fraud conspiracy.
Both Norman and his nephew Andre Montgomery starred in the long-running OWN reality show about a popular soul-food business that was founded in the St. Louis area by Robbie Montgomery, who is also Andre Montgomery’s grandmother. Robbie Montgomery is Norman’s mother and Andre Montgomery’s grandmother.
Although the prosecution is not pursuing the death penalty for Norman, he faces the possibility of receiving a sentence of up to life in prison. The date of the sentencing is planned for December 15th.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Norman, then 43 years old, paid two individuals to murder Montgomery, then 21 years old, on March 14, 2016, and then attempted to cash a life insurance policy worth $450,000 that had been taken out on his nephew some months earlier.
During the conclusion of the prosecution’s case, Assistant United States Attorney Angie Danis asserted that Norman was the mastermind behind the plot to kill Montgomery.
