ST. LOUIS — A federal jury on Friday convicted a former star of the St. Louis-based reality TV show “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s” of arranging the shooting death of his nephew.
The jury deliberated about 17 hours over three days before reaching its verdict in the murder-for-hire case against James “Tim” Norman, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
Norman and his nephew, Andre Montgomery, both starred in the long-running OWN reality show about a popular soul-food business founded in the St. Louis area by Robbie Montgomery — Norman’s mother and Andre’s grandmother.
Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty but Norman could be sentenced to up to life in prison. Sentencing is set for Dec. 15.
Federal prosecutors said Norman, 43, hired two people to kill the 21-year-old Montgomery on March 14, 2016, then tried to cash a $450,000 life insurance policy taken out on his nephew months earlier.
Defense attorney Michael Leonard said after the verdict that he and Norman were “extremely surprised and disappointed in the outcome” of the case. He said they plan to appeal and that Norman continues to be optimistic that he will eventually prevail.