ST. LOUIS – A federal appeals court rejected an appeal from Timothy Norman, a former St. Louis-based reality TV show star, in a murder-for-hire plot against his nephew.
A federal jury previously convicted James Timothy “Tim” Norman in September 2022 on two counts of federal murder-for-hire and one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud in the case.
According to federal court documents obtained by FOX 2, a court returned an opinion Tuesday to offer no reprieve as Norman’s attorneys looked to appeal his life sentence.
Norman is the son of Robbie Montgomery, who founded Sweetie Pie’s in 1996. The restaurant and Montgomery family were the subjects of a reality show produced by Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network called, “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s.”
Federal prosecutors said Norman, a co-owner of Sweetie Pie’s soul food restaurants in the St. Louis area, took out a $450,000 life insurance policy in 2015 on his nephew, Andre Montgomery Jr., with Norman named as the sole beneficiary. Montgomery was fatally shot in March 2016. Phone records revealed that Norman arranged his death.
Norman is one of four people to be sentenced in the conspiracy over Montgomery’s murder. Travell Hill, the convicted trigger man; Terica Ellis, an exotic dancer convicted of setting Andre up and tipping off Norman and others about Andre’s location prior to the murder; and Waiel Yaghnam, Norman’s insurance agent, have all been sentenced to several years behind bars.
