Welcome To Sweetie Pie’s star James “Tim” Norman has been found guilty of two counts of federal murder-for-hire and one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud after conspiring to kill his nephew, and Welcome To Sweetie Pie’s co-star, Andre Montgomery Jr. in March of 2016.
“Norman took out a life insurance policy worth $450,000 on Montgomery, then arranged through intermediaries for his nephew’s murder so that he could profit from it,” the post-conviction Department of Justice press release (included below) states. Norman paid an exotic dancer $10,000 to locate Andre and provide another man with the location. The other man, who received $5,000, then went to the location and shot and killed Andre.
Tim Norman is facing up to life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on December 15. Not helping the 43-year-old former reality star’s chance of getting a lesser sentence is the fact that he has an extensive criminal history. Tim’s troubles with the law started a very early age. While a senior at Hazelwood Central High School in north St. Louis, Missouri, 17-year-old Tim and another teen held up a string of fast food restaurants and an auto parts store. He was later sentenced to ten years in prison for armed robbery.
UPDATE – Tim Norman was sentenced to life in prison on March 2, 2023.
Tim was charged with assault in 2018 after allegedly punching an employee in the face over a paycheck dispute.
Despite the fact that the three co-conspirators in the case have all pleaded guilty, Tim maintains his innocence. “On behalf of Mr. Norman, we’re extremely surprised and disappointed in the outcome,” says Tim’s defense attorney, Mike Leonard. “Of course, a lot of the individuals on the jury pool had extensive exposure to the show or extensive exposure to Tim and Andre,” he added. “That was a factor in the selection process. There were a lot of jurors who were familiar with Tim and Andre. That made it difficult.”
DOJ statement on James timothy Norman conviction
Reality Show Star Convicted of Murder-For-Hire Charges
ST. LOUIS – A jury on Friday convicted a former reality show star from Jackson, Mississippi of murder-for-hire and insurance fraud charges connected his successful plot to have his nephew killed in 2016.
After seven days of evidence, jurors found James Timothy Norman, 43, guilty of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Andre Montgomery Jr. on March 14, 2016, at 3964 Natural Bridge Avenue in St. Louis.
Norman took out a life insurance policy worth $450,000 on Montgomery, then arranged through intermediaries for his nephew’s murder so that he could profit from it. Norman and Montgomery appeared on the reality show Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s.
All three of Norman’s co-defendants pleaded guilty before trial. On June 3, 2022, Travell Anthony Hill, now 31, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and one count of murder-for-hire. Hill admitted that prior to Montgomery’s death, he met with a mutual acquaintance of his and Norman’s, who told Hill that Norman wanted Montgomery killed. On the day of Montgomery’s death, Hill and Norman met in St. Louis and Norman told Hill that a woman would be calling with Montgomery’s location. After receiving a call from the woman, Terica Ellis, Hill fatally shot Montgomery with a .380-caliber handgun at 8:02 p.m. and then disposed of the gun and his phone. He was later paid $5,000.
On July 22, Ellis, 38, pleaded guilty to the murder-for-hire conspiracy charge and Waiel “Wally” Rebhi Yaghnam, 44, pleaded guilty to a charge of wire and mail fraud conspiracy.
Ellis, an exotic dancer from Memphis, Tennessee, admitted finding Montgomery twice for Norman before the murder and providing Montgomery’s whereabouts first to Norman, then to Hill, using prepaid “burner” phones Ellis and Norman purchased together. Ellis admitted knowing that Norman was upset and frustrated by his inability to locate Montgomery and knowing that Norman was going to take some form of action, but she did not know Montgomery would be shot. Norman paid her $10,000 for finding his nephew and told her to dispose of her burner phone after the murder.
Yaghnam, an insurance agent, admitted conspiring with Norman to fraudulently obtain a life insurance policy on Montgomery. Beginning in October of 2014, Norman and Yaghnam submitted five separate life insurance applications, all containing numerous false statements regarding Montgomery’s income, net worth, medical history, employment and family background. The $200,000 policy that was ultimately issued had a $200,000 accidental death rider that would pay out if Montgomery died of something other than natural causes and a $50,000 rider that would pay out if Montgomery died within 10 years of the policy’s issuance.
Following Montgomery’s murder, Yaghnam helped Norman file a claim on Montgomery’s life insurance policy.
Elis was charged by complaint on July 8, 2020. Norman was charged Aug. 11, 2020. Norman, Ellis and Yaghnam were indicted Aug. 20, 2020. Hill was charged Nov. 3, 2020.
Norman is scheduled to be sentenced December 15.
U.S. Attorney Sayler Fleming said, “I’d like to thank the prosecution team that worked with a tremendous amount of evidence to earn this guilty verdict, as well as the cooperation and diligence of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI.”
The FBI and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Angie Danis and Gwendolyn Carroll are prosecuting the case.
James Norman murder-for-hire details from criminal complaint
Here’s an embedded PDF of the criminal complaint filed against James Timothy Norman with details of the allegations against him. Below the PDF are some excerpts.
norman, james.Complaint.pdf by China Lee
In October 2014, James Timothy NORMAN, attempted to obtain a $250,000.00 life insurance policy on his 18 year-old nephew Andre Montgomery (“Montgomery”), for which NORMAN was the sole beneficiary, through America Insurance Company. Two weeks later, NORMAN attempted to obtain a second life insurance policy on Montgomery in the amount of $200,000.00, in addition to an accidental death rider in the amount of $250,000.00, through Foresters Insurance. This Foresters policy issued, listing NORMAN as the sole beneficiary, and NORMAN paid the monthly premiums directly from his checking account. In March of 2015, NORMAN attempted to obtain a replacement policy on Montgomery in the amount of $249,999.00, but the application was denied. The applications for all of these policies contained numerous false statements regarding Montgomery’s income, occupation, and family history.
On March 14, 2016, at approximately 8:02pm, Montgomery was killed by gunfire at 3964 Natural Bridge Avenue, which is located in the City of St. Louis, within the Eastern District of Missouri.
On March 10, 2016, Montgomery received an email message from tericaellis@gmail.com advising him that “I’m on my way in town.” (KF: Email? Are you serious?) A search of the tericaellis@gmail.com account indicated that this email address belongs to Terica Ellis (“Ellis”), an exotic dancer residing in Memphis, TN (KF: Stripper? He used a stripper?). On March 13, 2016, the day before the Montgomery’s murder, NORMAN flew from Los Angeles, CA, where he primarily resided, to St. Louis, and arrived in St. Louis at 12:12 a.m. on the morning of March 14, 2016. On or about March 13, 2016, Ellis posted on her Instagram account, with the username “Alexusdagreat,” that she was in St. Louis and would return to Memphis on March 14, 2016. (KF: Do these people not know there are manifests, passenger lists, and other records to document travel?)
Shortly after 1 p.m. on March 14, 2016, in the area of the Chase Park Plaza, two temporary phone numbers subsequently identified as belonging to Ellis and NORMAN became active in the same geographic location as numbers identified as belonging to NORMAN….
Montgomery’s cellular telephone was located in close proximity to his body and was forensically examined following the murder. Witnesses at the scene of the homicide indicated that Montgomery went outside to meet someone after receiving a telephone call, and was shot and killed shortly thereafter. The forensic examination of Montgomery’s phone, and subsequent investigation, revealed that the two people he spoke to within the 10 minutes prior to his death were his friend, K.T., and Terica Ellis, using Ellis phone #1. As further described herein, the location information associated with Ellis phone #1 put the phone in the vicinity of the murder at the time the murder occurred.
A review of toll records and text communications to Montgomery’s phone revealed that Montgomery texted Ellis phone #1 the address of the house where he was ultimately murdered at 7:07pm on March 14, 2016. At 7:07 p.m., less than an hour before Montgomery’s homicide, Ellis also placed a phone call to NORMAN phone #3. Investigators believe this was for the purpose of sharing Montgomery’s location with NORMAN.
Using Ellis phone #1, Ellis was communicating with NORMAN (on NORMAN phone #1) in the time surrounding Montgomery’s murder. Despite being at the scene of Montgomery’s murder at 8:02 p.m., Ellis’s first phone call was not to the police, but rather to NORMAN at 8:03 p.m., at which time her phone location data showed she was driving in a direction consistent with her returning to her home in Memphis, TN. Between March 15, 2016 and March 17, 2016, Ellis deposited over $9,000 in cash into multiple bank accounts, including a savings account she opened the day after the homicide. Prior to the homicide, Ellis’s checking account had a negative balance.
On March 21, 2016, after Montgomery’s murder, a man identifying himself as NORMAN, and using a phone number known to belong to NORMAN, called Foresters in an attempt to collect on the life insurance policy NORMAN had obtained on Montgomery in October of 2014. Despite several additional efforts to collect on the policy since Montgomery’s murder, Foresters has yet to pay out on the policy due to NORMAN’s failure to provide several requested documents….
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
