Original subtitles

Andre Montgomery was a kid.

In St. Louis, we have had high shooting totals,

homicide totals.

People described him as a kind person,

a good-hearted person.

[David] They were an iconic family in St. Louis.

I'm sure there's this level of undercover jealousy,

of undercover disdain.

You don't think that your own blood would do that.

[chilling music]

[narrator] On March 14th, 2016,

Andre Montgomery is making music

on Natural Bridgeú in St. Louis, Missouri.

Andre was at a friend's houseúand at the basement of this home

was a recording studio.

[Andrew] He was in the basement with his friends.

He got a phone call.

There was poor cell phone service,

so he walked outside.

All of a sudden, a man stepped out

and shot him multiple times.

At the time, the shooter ended up shooting Montgomery

after he called his name.

[Andrew] His friends heard some gunshots.

They ran outside to see what was going on,

and they discovered that Andre had been shot,

had run back in the house, and laid in the kitchen,

and succumbed to his wounds.

[news]21-year-old Andre Montgomery

was found dead a house on Natural Bridge.

Police were called and declared Andre dead at the scene.

This is a high crime area.

[Verona] St. Louis is a wonderful city.

You could drive down the street,

and there's this beautiful park, úand there's people playing golf

and people walking their dogs,

stay on the same street...

it slowly disintegrates.

You get to the other part of town.

Now all the buildings are just destroyed.

It's not rare for a shooting like this to happen

and it's something that we're we're used to

in the St. Louis city area.

[news]nNew tonight, a man shot to death

Monday night in North St. Louis.

So far, no arrests.

Andre Montgomery was featured on the

"Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" nTV show on Oprah's OWN network.

Police began investigating and found out

that Andre was somebodyú that was very well known

in the St. Louis community.

He came from a very high profile family.

His grandmother, Robbie, had been a backup singer

for Ike and Tina Turner back in the day.

She had retired.

She'd started a restaurant

and it had turned into a franchise,

"Sweetie Pie's".

There was a reality TV show built around

Robbie and this restaurant,

and it was picked up by the Oprah Network.

When I arrived in St. Louis,

I heard a lot of people talk about the TV show,

"Welcome to Sweetie Pie's".

It was kind of a local show, a local restaurant

that everybody knew about.

Sweetie Pie's... food is a big, big thing for St. Louis.

So people love their food.

There's amazing restaurants.

And I think that's why, you know,

the restaurant was such a hit.

People loved the soul food and whatnot.

[narrator]ú Clips from "Sweetie Pie's"

on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network

show Andre as a likable, charismatic young man,

eager to make his mark onú his grandmother's business

as he comes of age.

Sweetie Pie's delivery, thisúis Andre, how can I help you?

Two orders of fried chicken,

side of green beans, cobbler for dessert.

12:24, I'll see you in 30 minutes.

Andre was on the "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" show

and helped out at the restaurants

while he also was finishing high school.

He really became not just somebody

who was a regular part of this show,

but was really a favourite of people who were watching him.

[Andrew] Who would want this kid dead?

Why would they want him dead?

Andre had a really interesting and kind of unpredictable

road to St. Louis.

He was actually born in San Diego,

and when he was only months old, his father was murdered in LA.

[Angie] Andre Montgomery was a little transient.

He was living in Florida at times,

he was living in Texas at times,

and then ultimately he came up

to live in St. Louis for a little bit.

[Andrew] Andre moved to St. Louis

to get close to his grandmother.

She was famous, she had a successful business.

He was looking for that kind of life.

[David] Talking to his friends,

they described him as kind of a class clown.

He was an aspiringú music producer, rapper.

I think he wanted to be a part of something bigger.

[news] Miss Robbie starred in the reality TV show

named after the restaurant,

which ran for five years on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

A lot of people have grown up

with this Sweetie Pie's restaurant

and with this show in the background,

it's part of kind of the fabric of the community here.

[David] It featured Robbie Montgomery as the matriarch.

Her son, Tim Norman, were pretty much the main characters,

but then you also had some other family members

such as Andre Montgomery.

[Joni] When Andre moved to St. Louis,

he also spent a lot of time with his uncle, Tim.

Tim Norman was his dad's brother

and the only surviving brother.

Robbie Montgomery was Tim Norman's mother

and Andre Montgomery was Tim Norman's nephew

and Robbie Montgomery's grandchild.

Tim Norman had said that he wanted to be

a father figure to Andre and told Andre's mom,

"Hey, he would have a great life here in St. Louis.

We could help him go to school, help him get music classes."

[Justina] Tim Norman was someone that Andre's mother knew

and trusted.

She entrusted him with caring for Andre Montgomery.

[Kristin] On the show, Tim Norman is charming.

He's a little bit of a sweet talker.

He has a very affectionateúrelationship with his nephew.

But he does have a criminal past.

His brother was also murdered in Los Angeles,

so a bit of trauma there.

Tim's story's pretty interesting

because he was convicted at a very young age of robbery

and spent several years in prison.

And at the age of 17,

he actually went to prison for 10 years

on some armed robbery charges.

All of a sudden, moving into an environment

where he is meeting Oprah Winfrey,

and he is schmoozing at the restaurant,

and he is kind of a big wig,

I wonder how much emotionally, cognitively,

he was ready for those kinds of positions of responsibility.

[Kristin] Andre and his uncle were very close.

And on the show, they have this, what appears to be

a very affectionate, loving relationship.

But there was a whole relationship

happening behind that.

[narrator] By 2015, "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's"

is in its fifth season on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Tim Norman and Andre Montgomery are household names.

Around this time, Andre is 21 years old.

He is starting to want toú assert his own independence.

And while Tim has served as a father figure

up to this point,

Andre wants to be his own man.

At one point, his mom, úRobbie, fires him from the show

because he hits Andre and another cousin.

And his reasoning is that he's disciplining them,

but everybody around them

thought that looked like physical abuse to them.

[narrator] A clip fromúseries four of "Sweetie Pie's"

shows the aftermath of anú infamous confrontation

between Tim Norman and Andre Montgomery.

And he hit me in my chest.

[Robbie] In the office, in the restaurant?

What the f.♪.♪. ♪ is wrong with him?

[narrator] After learning of Tim's assault on Andre,

Robbie Montgomery confronts her son.

[Robbie] Putting your hands on him, that's not right.

That's not right.

I fired Tim because I think he made a move that was wrong.

And then again, we have a situation

where he's arrested for assault

on another employee of the restaurant,

where this employee is talking to him

about a paycheck issue.

And you know, Tim's response is to get angry

and hit this person in the face.

So there's clearly a history where he's not either able

or not willing to handle conflict

or handle situations he doesn't like.

[narrator] Keen to prove he can succeed on his own,

Tim Norman begins opening his own restaurants.

At some point, Tim decidedú that he wanted to expand

his business opportunities.

So he began openingú Sweetie Pie's restaurants

on his own.

Tim's public persona wasú that of wealth and celebrity

and living it up.

These reality stars are under

an intense amount of pressure to look wealthy.

They're supposed to have nice cars,

to wear nice jewelry, have Rolexes.

Tim Norman is now under financial pressure.

He was actually in financial ruin.

His credit card debt was astronomical.

He had fancy cars and flashed a lot of cash around,

but none of it was real.

[narrator] On a summer's night in 2015,

the home of Robbie Montgomery,

Tim's mother and Andre's grandmother,

is broken into.

[David] In 2015,

Robbie Montgomery had taken a trip out of town.

When she returned home,

she found that her house had been burglarized.

The assailants cut open couch cushions,

ransacked the house.

There was at least $200,000 in cash

that was allegedly stolen.

Tim became very upset.

[narrator] Tim Norman says he has suspicions

about who might be responsible.

Tim Norman very publicly told people

that he believed Andre was responsible for this burglary.

And as a result, Andre Montgomery became scared

and left St. Louis.

[Andrew] Andre went to Florida because

he kind of wanted to avoid the drama that Tim was causing.

He was on the beach, not really living the lifestyle of somebody

who just burglarized a house

and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars,

which is what Tim Norman

had accused him of doing at the time.

[narrator] At the request of his grandmother,

in March the following year,

Andre Montgomery agrees to return

and face up to the accusations.

Andre Montgomery returned to St. Louis

to take a polygraph examination to clear his name

in the burglary.

After the police spoke with him,

they ultimately cleared him in that investigation.

Tim Norman certainly wanted everyone to believe

that Andre Montgomery was responsible for that robbery.

To this day, we do not know who perpetrated that robbery.

[narrator] Within days of returning to St. Louis

to clear his name,

Andre Montgomery is shot dead.

And for the next three years, his murder remains unsolved.

[news] So far, no arrests.

You have a neighbourhood that has a history of crime,

and so it can be very easy to kind of chalk this up

as this must be some kind of drive-by

or this must be some kind of drug-related problem.

There were no eyewitnesses who could ever identify

who the shooter was.

They could never identify who it was

that Andre was going out to meet in response to this phone call.

It almost had the appearance of a drive-by shooting.

What it needed was time and resources,

and unfortunately in the city of St. Louis,

the homicide unit is severely understaffed

and tremendously overworked.

[narrator]ú Andre Montgomery's mother

refuses to give up onú finding her son's murderer.

Andre Montgomery's motherú just kept calling Homicide

and she was determined toú get someone on the phone

who was going to help with her son's case.

She was worried that her son mayúbecome a statistic, a number,

and she didn't want that to happen.

And she was lucky enough to get Dave Rudolph.

I was transferred to Homicide in 2019.

Almost immediately,

I was approached by one of my supervisors

who handed me Andre Montgomery's police report

documenting his murder.

And I was told to take a fresh look at the case.

I think it did stand out toú the original investigators

that something was off in this case

because the targeted nature, he got a call,

he went outside,

and then he was immediately murdered.

[narrator]ú As investigators dig deeper,

they discover a seriesú of life insurance policies

taken out on Andre's life.

Detectives became aware of some life insurance policies

on Andre Montgomery's life,

and all of the beneficiaries of those policies

were listed as Tim Norman.

They were contacted by a life insurance company

trying to determine if Tim was a person of interest

because they were trying to figure out

if they should pay out the life insurance proceeds

to Tim Norman.

It was a total of $450,000.

[narrator] The man helping Tim Norman

arrange these policies is his own insurance agent.

Wally Yaghnam is Wally Millions.

He was a music producer.

He is in the rap industry.

And he was the insurance agent who facilitated

these life insurance policies.

And when police found out

that only days after his nephew is gunned down,

killed by somebody,

his uncle calls for a life insurance policy right away.

There is something up here.

Whenever someone starts applying

for five multiple life insurance policies,

multi-million dollar policies,

on someone with whom they don'túhave a financial relationship,

you have to ask why.

[narrator] News that Tim Norman

had taken out life insurance policies on his nephew,

combined with rumours he blamed Andre

for a burglary at Miss Robbie's home,

raises police suspicions.

Tim Norman exerted a lot of effort

to make people believe that Andre Montgomery

was responsible for the robberyúat Robbie Montgomery's house.

Andre Montgomery started picking up

that he may be getting framed for something

that he didn't do.

And he leaves St. Louis becauseúhe's starting to become fearful

that his uncle is setting him up.

At one point, he even tells his mom

that he's afraid that his uncle is looking for him.

He's afraid that his uncle is going to hurt him.

He also tells St. Louis PD that he believes his uncle

is behind this robbery.

It appeared in no way, shape, or form

he had anything to do with the burglary,

but Andre had expressed to people

that he was deathly afraid of Tim.

Through Andre's own words, he said Tim was after him,

and he was afraid that Tim was gonna kill him.

[Joni] Robbie had essentially mainly two heirs.

She had Tim, her son, and then she had Andre,

who was the only child of her other son.

But I do think that there was a lot of underlying resentment

that Tim had for Andre

about how his mom felt about her grandson

and doted on him.

[narrator] But as police investigate possible links

between Tim Norman and the murder of his nephew,

the case takes an unexpected turn

and a new name enters the frame.

[David] Travell Hill is a local gang member.

He lived in the area of the original Sweetie Pie's

in the Forest Park Southeast neighbourhoods.

What really starts to pique the interest of investigators,

one of their first clues is a jail phone call

between Travell Hill and his brother,

who's incarcerated.

It was recorded because it was a jail phone call,

and during that conversation, he was talking about

how he killed Andre Montgomery Jr.

[indistinct phone recording]

And so they began to look at, you know,

Travell Hill, and they questioned him.

[narrator] When detectives question Travell Hill

about the claims he made on that jail call,

he makes a shocking admission.

He didn't act alone.

He tells them he was joined by a woman named Terica Ellis.

Terica Ellis was a stripper.

She was an exotic dancer

who had had a lot of struggles in her life.

[Joni] There was an exotic dancing location,

strip club, close to St. Louis.

And that was a place where Terica Ellis often worked

and would meet customers.

[narrator] As detectives dig into Terica Ellis,

they uncover a web of connections

linking her to Travell Hill

and back to Andre's uncle, Tim Norman.

So by all accounts, Travell Hill

and his fellow gang members met Tim Norman

from working in the area of Sweetie Pie's.

Terica Ellis was somebody that Tim Norman knew

because she was an exotic dancer.

She would come to strip clubs

in the St. Louis area on weekends,

and she met Tim Normanú frequently through that.

On occasion, she would also meet Tim Norman

for sex in exchange for money.

That was primarily their relationship,

and they kind of kept in touch over the years.

She had a really terrible traumatic childhood,

and Tim Norman, I think, seemed to her like a ticket

to something that might be better.

He agreed to help her start her small business.

And then after he'd gotten her pretty comfortable,

he asked her if she would reach out to Andre

over Instagram and ask to meet up, which she did.

And so she began messaging with Andre Montgomery.

Andre's friends knew that he had met a stripper

at a club the weekend prior.

She had kind of out of the blue started messaging him

earlier in the day before he died,

and he had been talking about meeting her later that night.

[Verona] Tim was an intelligent person.

He wasn't a dummy by no means.

He was very thoughtful.

He's plotting, he's planning, úhe's thinking three steps ahead.

Travell Hill tells them

that a mutual friend of his and Tim Norman's

had contacted him

about potentially killing Andre Montgomery,

and that she would be coordinating

this kind of murder for hire,

because he had agreed to do it, of course.

And so this really starts everything.

So he spills the beans.

[narrator] Travell Hill tells police

he was hired to kill Andre Montgomery

and that Terica Ellis lured him outside,

all under the direction of uncle Tim Norman.

In August of 2020, they are all arrested

in connection with Andre's murder.

[news] Norman is charged in thencommission of a murder for hire.

Memphis resident Terica Ellis, ú Norman's alleged accomplice,

also faces the same charge.

According to charging documents

on the night of March 14th, 2016,

Andre Montgomery walked outside to take a call,

and that's when he was shot and killed.

Tim Norman, he was very stoic during his arrest,

did not act very surprised,

and he invoked his right to remain silent.

I look at that mugshot of Tim Norman,

and he's still smiling.

He's got that big smile.

[news] Montgomery's son, ú 41-year-old James Tim Norman

is now charged in connection

with a murder for hire plot

that left his own nephew dead.

[Kristin] He's smiling in that photo like nothing's wrong.

He still has that public persona.

[news] This morning atú St. Louis reality TV star

is back in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.

Tim Norman, who starredú with his family in the show,

"Welcome to Sweetie Pie's",

is accused of plotting theú 2016 murder of his nephew,

Andre Montgomery Jr.

[reporter] All defendants remain in federal custody

as they await their trials.

[David] Robbie Montgomery is put in an unimaginable position.

On one hand, there's evidence showing that her son

had her grandson murdered.

On the other hand, it's still her son.

I actually spoke to Andre Montgomery's mom,

and she always felt like Tim Norman

was jealous of her son

because of that relationship between Robbie and Andre.

[Joni] I think it does cause a lot of chaos in the family.

And I think if you're Robbie,

what do you do with the loyalty you have to your son?

[narrator] To unravel a web of

financial records, digital trails, and communications

that could help solve Andre's murder,

police bring in the FBI.

They asked us to get involved in the case

because as the FBI, we're able to bring in a team,

people like financial analysts

who are really able to dig into records

and get a broad picture of what's going on.

We got records from hundreds of providers,

financial providers, data providers,

all kinds of records,

to start figuring out who was involved in this crime.

[David] In looking at the crime scene photos,

it didn't appear to be a street robbery.

Street robberies,

when they go bad and somebody dies,

normally you'll find the victim's pockets

turned inside out.

You'll find their jewelry missing.

You'll find their wallet missing.

None of those items were missing.

I subpoenaed Tim Norman's financial records.

That was when I first discovered a charge on his credit card,

which showed that he was in St. Louis

on the day of Andre's murder.

Up until that point, nobody realized

that he had a hotel room booked for the day of Andre's murder.

We were to able to determine that Tim Norman

flew into St. Louis aboutúmidnight on March 13th of 2016,

and that he was scheduled toúdepart the evening of the murder

around 8 p.m.,

but his flight was delayed

and did not end up taking off until, I believe, midnight.

It was quite suspicious that, you know,

someone residing in Los Angeles would come into St. Louis

the day his nephew happens to be murdered

and then depart the following evening.

That was certainly a big red flag in the investigation,

and multiple people over at FBI and in Homicide

were trying to pull at threads

and see who was depositing money and at what times.

The first payment that we learned about

was the $10,000 that was paid to Terica Ellis.

She deposits that amount of money

in the two to three days following the murder.

[narrator] The FBI discover that a go-between

has been used to pay the hitman.

Then we learned that two days after the homicide,

on March 16th, an individual paid $5,000 in cash

at Tim's direction to Travell Hill.

He actually photographed the money,

so we were able to recover that photograph.

It was interesting because

the money was banded a certain way

with different colour rubber bands.

What made it particularly helpful

was that the bands on the money were unique.

They were colourful in a way that made it very clear

that the man who paid the shooter wasn't lying.

He described the money and how it had been banded,

and a photograph confirmed that he was telling the truth.

One of the things we're able to do at the FBI

is we are able to obtain large amounts of data

and be able to analyze them quickly and effectively.

Tim Norman claimed he had a burner phone

because he had infidelities,

'cause he had a baby mama at the time.

[David] He had met up with Terica Ellis.

I believe it was the day of the murder.

He offered her $10,000 to get a location on Andre.

At that point, they travelled to a local Walgreens

and activated burner phones.

And that's when the murderú for hire really ramped up.

[narrator] On the day of his murder,

Andre is in contact with Terica Ellis.

She uses flirtation, trust, and gifts to keep him engaged.

She was really, for Andre Montgomery,

just a girl he liked that he'd been talking to.

He thought, "This is pretty cool,

this girl I like who's talking to me

seems to be willing to get me free pants

and come hang out with me. Neat."

[David] Andre Montgomery got into the car with Terica Ellis.

She had actually purchased him a set of jeans from a local mall.

[Andrew] Terica had been coached by Tim

to cover her tracks as best as possible.

One thing he told her to do was delete her Facebook messages,

which she did for the most part,

but she did not delete everything.

Even if you try to erase your digital footprint,

nothing is ever gone forever.

What we could show is within seconds

of Andre giving hisú location to Terica Ellis,

she is turning aroundú and giving that location

to her co-conspirators.

That way they know exactly where Andre is located

and where the place they're going to murder him at.

And then they find Tim's phone,

and it leads you right to his doorstep.

[narrator] Phone records reveal Tim Norman

plans to be out of town the day of Andre's murder,

but delays keep him closer to home.

The original plan was that Tim Norman

was gonna leave St. Louis prior to this murder happening.

However, there was a delay in his flights

and as it sits, he was sitting on an airplane

or at the airport when Andre was murdered.

When police found out that only days

after his nephew is gunned down,

killed by somebody,

his uncle calls for a life insurance policy.

This to police, it's not matching up.

Investigators looked at the insurance broker,

Tim's friend, involved in this.

And they noticed that there were transactions between Tim

and this insurance broker.

Wally is what I call the straw fraud guy.

He is the guy that helps him get the insurance policies.

Tim Norman, with the help of a insurance broker,

a friend of his,

they inflated how much Andre was worth.

The more that Andre is worth,

the more money someone would get if Andre died.

If Montgomery died by an accident,

homicide is included in that,

he would get paid out even more,

which was interesting.

Also, another thing was there was a 10-year term plan as well.

That was the additional $50,000

that if he died in that 10-year span

of filing and opening that claim,

he would also get paid out.

Some of those policy applications

were listing that Andre Montgomery

had a net worth of $50,000.

Others were listing that he had a net worth of $200,000,

both of which were tremendously overestimated.

And for prosecutors, this was important,

it showed intent.

It showed that this didn't just magically happen.

This was something that they did for two years

to try to get this policy eventually to $450,000.

We uncovered messages

as egregious as Tim Normanú telling the insurance agent,

"He's not gonna make itú another six months, bro."

What really came close to closing the deal

was the fact that Tim Norman

started banging on the door of the life insurance company

within a few days of the death of Andre Montgomery.

And that money trail only leads to one person,

and that's Tim Norman.

No one else stood to benefit financially

from the death of Andre Montgomery.

[narrator] The FBI, police, and prosecutors

claim Tim Norman has been planning his nephew's murder

for some time before the shooting.

Tim Norman, by, you know, 2013, 2014,

he's already starting to think of this plan.

And he knows... he knows that when he's on camera,

he has to look like he loves his nephew.

[narrator] In September 2022,

prosecutors prepared to present evidence

against Tim Norman.

The "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" ú reality TV star, Tim Norman,

is accused of plotting to kill his nephew,

Andre Montgomery Jr.

Now at six, our Justina Coronel live

from the federal courthouse in downtown St. Louis.

Justina, what can you tell us?

Yeah, Brent, so we heard from two FBI agents

who were able to track down where Norman was

on the day of the murder.

Now, these agents went step by step

from flight details to cell phone tower pings.

It took them four years toú put all the pieces together.

This is kind of a case that I call

"death by a thousand paper cuts".

And what I mean by that is, this was a data-driven case.

We were able to get data from so many different places.

[narrator] By 2022, Travell Hill, Terica Ellis,

and insurance agent Wally Yaghnam

have all pleaded guilty,

admitting their roles in a murder-for-hire plot

and insurance fraud scheme.

[Gwendolyn] Wally Millions, YL Yaghnam, insurance broker.

YL Yaghnam was not convicted ofúthe murder for hire conspiracy.

He ended up getting three years.

Travell Hill got 32 years.

Terica Ellis got a sentence of time served,

which ended up being a little over three years,

which was a fair sentence.

Travell Hill admitted thatú he had fired the shots that

killed Andre Montgomery.

So Travell Hill pled guilty.

Terica Ellis also pled guilty.

And both of them also testified at trial against Tim Norman.

[narrator] Tim Norman is theonly one of the four defendants

to contest the charges.

In September 2022, he stands trial

at the U.S. District Court in St. Louis.

[news] Terica Ellis says she wasú in a sexual relationship

with Norman for a few years.

She tells the jury back in 2016,

Norman asked her to help find his nephew

and would pay her $10,000 to do so.

Terica Ellis testified that she was shocked

that the shooting had occurred.

Her understanding was that Tim wanted to confront Andre

about this burglary.

What Tim Norman did was capitalize on vulnerabilities.

He knew that Terica Ellis was desperate for money.

They needed him to try to help them make their lives better,

and he took advantage of those vulnerabilities.

[news] Hill shares Norman was a mentor to him

and took responsibilityú for killing Montgomery.

It was very clear at trial that Travell still felt

a tremendous amount of loyalty to Tim Norman

and I think tried his best to minimize

Tim's involvement in this.

Some facts were just inescapable,

regardless of how poorly he testified.

[ Justina] Hill had testified

that he saw Tim Norman as a mentor.

So in this situation, ú it might have been where

he took advantage of that

and a bit of a potentiallyú grooming of Travell Hill

to commit this act, 'cause he trusted him.

[Kristin] So the fingers are now pointing,

and all the fingers, who are they coming back to?

Tim Norman, right?

He was the one who had this idea.

He's the one executing it.

[narrator] The prosecution alleged

that Tim Norman's motive for killing his nephew was money.

It's proven very obvious thatúpart of the motive was greed

and the need for-orú the want for more money.

Then they had these fightsú between Robbie and Tim,

where she was at the point where

she did not I don't want to work with him anymore.

All of those things probablyú added into his mindset of,

"But I got an image toú keep up, I've been on TV,

I'm famous now.

People think I have money.

I need more money.

How am I going to get it?"

[narrator] Tim Norman maintains he is innocent.

His defence is that he was a loving uncle

who took out the insurance to provide for his nephew.

[news] It's an unexpected turn for a case

featuring a local reality TV star.

Just a few hours ago, Tim Norman testified

in his own murder-for-hire trial.

Now, everyone has actually already pled guilty

except for Norman, and Norman is the only defendant

that is choosing to go to trial.

Tim Norman actually went on Instagram

and wrote #innocent.

So even hours before learning his fate,

he was still trying to prove to everyone that he was innocent.

They asked him point blank on the stand,

but Tim Norman even said, "No, I have no involvement in this."

So he has claimed his innocence through this all.

[news]ú Norman became emotional

and was asked multiple times

about his involvementú with his nephew's murder.

He denied every claim from paying someone to do it

to being behind the entire plot.

Tim Norman always said

that he took out this life insurance policy

because he cared for his nephew

That was always his defence that he as a loving uncle

wanted to make sure that Andre was provided for.

Agents went step byú step from flight details

to cell phone tower pings.

Norman flew from California to St. Louis

early in the morning on the day his nephew was killed.

[Angie] I believe the jury was out actually for about 17 hours.

Whenever a jury goes out, it's a high anxiety experience.

And certainly the longer they're out,

the more that anxiety builds.

[Gwendolyn] For us, you know, we've lived with the case,

we've lived with the evidence.

We know that there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

We believe in it with all of our souls.

[narrator] The jury finds Tim Norman guilty

on all three counts.

He is sentenced to life in federal prison

without the possibility of parole.

[news] As a reality TVú personality heads to court,

a guilty verdict today.

He's found guilty of arrangingúthe murder of his own nephew.

Tim Norman was found guilty of three counts.

He was found guilty of conspiracy

to commit murder for hire,

the substantive count of murder for hire,

and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud.

And Tim Norman was sentenced to life in prison

without the possibility of parole.

[narrator] On the courthouse steps,

Justina Coronel speaks with members

of Andre's maternal family.

This is justice.

You know, I'm glad they put thatúmonster behind bars for life.

Yeah, cause he was greedy,

and he was willing to take his nephew's life.

My mother got some peace. We knew it was him.

We knew it.

They released balloons and whatnot,

but they were ecstatic.

They were so happy that there was justice for her son.

[news] Tonight, the family of Andre Montgomery Jr.

Holding a balloon release

hours after a jury found his uncle guilty

of orchestrating his murder.

[David] Tim Norman's going to spend

the rest of his life in prison.

It couldn't get any better

as far as the outcome of murder cases go.

In my opinion, Tim Norman got exactly what he deserved.

I did not experience joy when Tim Norman got convicted.

No one walks out of a federal courtroom feeling good.

You are only in the federal courtroom to begin with

because lives have been destroyed.

We only show up when the damage has been done.

By the time we get there, lives have been ruined.

What we cannot do is bring Andre Montgomery back to life.

He ruined multiple lives, not just ours,

but multiple lives.

And it's just-it's some peace, but not all the way,

because my brother's not going to come back.

[Gwendolyn] Andre Montgomery's mother

was genuinely grief stricken.

A lot of this started because Andre Montgomery's mother

just kept calling homicide.

And then to have her there and Andre's brother there

and his sisters when that verdict came in,

that was a real full circle moment

because she really trusted us throughout that investigation.

[narrator] The murder of Andre Montgomery

leaves a trail of devastation

that reaches far beyond the courtroom.

[news] After a man on the reality TV show,

"Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" wasúconvicted of murder for hire,

the restaurant is now closingú its Upper Crust location.

[Justina] All the businesses have closed.

Put a sign at the door... It was never,

which happened to be shortly after the trial

and everything ended, but it was never about,

hey, we're having family issues,

or hey, this is a really hard time in our lives.

It was blamed on the economy, but never admitting that,

but the timing seemed interesting.

Robbie Montgomery has lost her firstborn

due to gun violence.

Then to lose her grandson the same way

based on the hands of her own son,

Robbie Montgomery must be going through hell.

And that's just something no one should be going through.

Norman's family was upset

while Montgomery's family rejoiced.

Now, after the verdict, we caught Montgomery's family

on camera outside screaming and celebrating.

All of them were wearing shirts with Montgomery's photos.

You don't think that your own blood would do that,

or you would hope that would never happen.

[narrator] Tim Norman is currently serving

life in federal prison

without the possibility of parole.

Andre's life was not lost in vain.

Those of us who investigated his murder

and the partnerships that were formed

are helping victims today.

Andre Montgomery's murder

made a difference in the lives of countless people

through what we learned and how we go about things today.

If Andre Montgomery's spirit is floating out there somewhere,

I think the thing that would break my heart

if I were that spirit, is that my uncle murdered me

because he thought my life was that people wouldn't miss.

And I think that is probably the greatest tragedy of this case.