On Friday, a federal jury discovered James “Tim” Norman, 43, responsible within the March 2016 loss of life of Andre Montgomery, 21. Norman and his nephew starred in “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s,” a long-running present a few family-owned assortment of soul meals eating places within the St. Louis space.
Through the trial, prosecutors argued that Norman was chargeable for arranging a murder-for-hire plot when he employed two folks to kill Montgomery on March 14, 2016. They mentioned he then tried to money a $450,000 life insurance coverage coverage taken out on his nephew months earlier.
MEMPHIS – OCTOBER 03: Â Sweetie Pie’s Restaurant signage in Memphis, Tennessee on October 3, 2016.
(Raymond Boyd/Getty Photographs)
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Angie Danis argued Norman was chargeable for orchestrating the entire plan, claiming he paid $10,000 to an unique dancer, Terica Ellis, to lure his nephew to the realm he was ultimately murdered. Prosecutors mentioned Norman additionally paid $5,000 to Travell Anthony Hill to shoot Montgomery.
“Mr. Norman’s crimes had been motivated by greed and whereas the proof was voluminous and overwhelming, Mr. Norman’s plan was comparatively simple,” U.S. Legal professional Sayler Fleming mentioned after Norman was discovered responsible. “He fraudulently obtained life insurance coverage within the quantity of $450,000 on his nephew, Andre Montgomery, with out Mr. Montgomery’s data, he then used a paramour to find Mr. Montgomery and a co-defendant to fatally shoot and kill him. Inside days of his nephew’s homicide, Mr. Norman began the method of getting the insurance coverage firm to pay the declare.”
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Norman advised jurors that he was a “father determine” to his nephew and helped him transfer to St. Louis about 18 months earlier than he was killed.
“That is my brother’s child, so I attempted my greatest to step in and be a father determine,” Norman testified. “I attempted my greatest to point out him proper from improper and tried to be a pal on the identical time.”
FILE – A buyer picks up meals from Sweetie Pie’s proprietor Robbie Montgomery, second proper, and Montgomery’s son, James “Tim” Norman, proper, on the store in St. Louis, on April 19, 2011.
(David Carson/St. Louis Publish-Dispatch by way of AP, File)
Following the decision, U.S. Legal professional Sayler Fleming mentioned her crew was “very, very happy” however didn’t remark additional.
Protection legal professional Michael Leonard mentioned Norman being chargeable for Montgomery’s homicide was a “made up principle” by prosecutors and that he and Norman had been “extraordinarily stunned and upset within the end result.”
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He additionally described the testimony of Ellis and Hill, in opposition to his shopper as “extraordinarily non-credible.”
PASADENA, CA – FEBRUARY 04: Â The solid of “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s” attends the forty seventh NAACP Picture Awards Non-Televised Awards Ceremony on February 4, 2016 in Pasadena, California.
(Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Photographs for NAACP Picture Awards)
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Norman faces as much as life in jail and a sentencing listening to is ready for Dec. 15.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
