James Timothy Norman was arrested in Mississippi on Tuesday in connection with a murder-for-hire plot that resulted in the death of his teenage nephew Andre Montgomery in 2016.
Norman is best known as the son of Sweetie Pie's restaurant owner and reality TV star Robbie Montgomery, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The 41-year-old was charged last week for conspiring with a woman name Terica Ellis from Memphis, Tennessee, and others "to use a facility of interstate commerce, namely, a cellular telephone, to commit a murder-for-hire in exchange for United States currency."
According to CNN, Norman obtained a $450,000 life insurance policy on his 18-year-old nephew back in 2014. As the sole beneficiary of the plan, he would receive the insurance money in the case of Montgomery’s death. The day before the murder on March 13, 2016, Norman and Ellis both reportedly flew to St. Louis, Missouri, according to a news release from the US Attorney's Office Eastern District of Missouri.
Norman and Ellis were in communication using temporary phones activated on the day of the murder. After finding Montgomery’s location, phone records show Ellis placing a call to Norman. Montgomery was shot to death at 8:02 p.m. that day.
According to officials, Ellis' "phone location information places her in the vicinity of the murder at time of the homicide.” Following the murder, she called Norman and headed back to Memphis, before depositing more than $9,000 into various bank accounts in the days after. Ellis has also been charged with conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, resulting in death.
A week after Montgomery's death, Norman contacted the life insurance company to collect funds from the policy he took out on Montgomery. After several attempts, he failed to provide the necessary documents required to obtain the money.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Section and FBI are continuing to investigate.
