James “Tim” Norman, owner of Sweetie Pie’s restaurant made famous by the OWN reality show Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s, has been arrested and charged for an alleged murder-for-hire plot in the 2016 shooting death of his own nephew.
Federal authorities allege that Norman—who is the son of Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s star Miss Robbie—obtained a $450,000 life insurance policy on his 18-year-old nephew, Andre Montgomery, back in 2014 and listed himself as the sole beneficiary.
The feds say that Tim then conspired with a woman named Terica Ellis to allegedly commit a murder-for-hire plot in exchange for money.
According to the feds, Norman and Ellis, who is an exotic dancer, used burner phones to communicate with each other in the days leading up to Montgomery’s murder in St. Louis.
According to the criminal complaint, days before the murder, Ellis told Montgomery that she was coming to St. Louis, and on March 13th, 2016—the day before Montgomery’s murder—Norman flew to St. Louis from his home in Los Angeles.
On March 14th, Ellis and Norman communicated with each other using burner phones that were activated that same day, and Ellis also used the temporary phone to communicate with Norman and find out his location.
Immediately after finding out Montgomery’s location, Ellis called Norman, and around 8 p.m. that same day, Montgomery was shot and killed. Location information from Ellis’ phone placed her in the area of the murder at the time of the shooting, federal officials said.
Ellis called Norman immediately after Montgomery’s murder and then traveled to Memphis, Tennessee. Ellis then deposited over $9,000 into various bank accounts.
On March 21st, 2016—just seven days after Montgomery’s murder—Norman contacted the life insurance company in an attempt to collect on the policy he’d obtained on his nephew.
Norman and Ellis were both charged with conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities (i.e. a cellphone) in the commission of a murder-for-hire, resulting in death.
