Former “Sweetie Pie” star James ‘Tim’ Norman was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for the murder-for-hire plot against his late nephew, Andre Montgomery Jr. As we previously reported, Norman, who is the son of Robbie Montgomery, was accused of taking out a $450,000 insurance policy a year before hiring a hitman to shoot and kill his nephew back in 2016.
Norman was found guilty back in September after a jury spent around 17 hours deliberating their final verdict and found him to be guilty on all charges, which included mail fraud, murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. Travel Anthony Hill, who killed Montgomery Jr., received 32 years in prison during his sentencing in October while Norman’s insurance agent Waiel Rebhi Yaghnam was sentenced to three years behind bars for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
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In January, Terica Ellis, who was accused of luring Montgomery Jr. to a discreet location where he ended up getting killed, was also sentenced to three years in prison for her involvement in the despicable crime. Norman’s sentencing comes just one week after he penned a message on Instagram, telling his followers that he would continue to maintain his innocence.
“Thank you for all the prayers,” he wrote. “I’m still in disbelief. The feds know 100% I did not do those insurance policies. But the jury didn’t hear that. And not one person got on the stand and said that I told them to hurt my nephew. They destroyed my name and image so you guys wouldn’t search for the truth.”
News of his sentencing will undoubtedly still come as a shock to fans who regularly watched both Montgomery Jr. and Norman on the former OWN series, “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s,” which ran from 2011 to 2018. The show was centered around the St. Louis-based family as they geared up to grow their soul food restaurant empire, with Norman being given the responsibility to help run the business.
Before Norman’s sentencing, his mother is said to have sent a letter asking the judge for mercy, writing, “As a mother I am devastated that my son has been accused and convicted of the crimes. But I am pleading to God through you for mercy. Tim is my only living son. I lost my other son to violence in the streets of Los Angeles when Tim was only 15 years old.”