ST. LOUIS — Prosecutors stunned many in St. Louis last month when they brought a murder-for-hire charge against a star of a long-running St. Louis reality TV show about a wholesome family soul food business.
Now police files recently obtained by the Post-Dispatch reveal more about a burglary involving cash and jewelry worth at least $220,000 that rocked the famous family in the months leading up to what prosecutors say was a plot to kill a 21-year-old member of the family.
The burglary was reported the evening of June 7, 2015, at the north St. Louis County home of Robbie Montgomery, a former backup singer for acts such as Ike and Tina Turner. In 1996, she opened the first of her Sweetie Pie’s restaurants in Dellwood.
By 2015, Montgomery was 74 and known as “Miss Robbie” on “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s,” a reality show about her restaurants that was broadcast on OWN. Her son, James Timothy Norman, who went by Tim, and her grandson, Andre Montgomery Jr., were regularly featured on the show.
On the night of the burglary, Miss Robbie called police when she returned home from a vacation to discover her house had been ransacked. Her life savings and retirement funds she kept in cash in drawers and safes were gone.
The police documents reveal officers initially suspected Andre Montgomery in the burglary, and after a few months out of town, he agreed to return to St. Louis to speak with police and take a polygraph test on March 10, 2016. That day, Andre denied being involved in the theft and told police he thought his uncle, Norman, was behind it.
St. Louis County police never closed the burglary case, but four days after Andre Montgomery was questioned, the 21-year-old was shot and killed near Fairground Park.
Last month, Norman, 41, was charged in federal court and accused of conspiring with at least two others in a plot to kill Andre Montgomery and collect on a life insurance policy against his nephew.
Andre’s final months
March 25, 2012, during a surprise visit by Oprah Winfreyin St. Louis to surprise the cast of OWN's "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" Sunday, March 25, 2012. Andre Montgomery Jr., grandson of Sweetie Pie's owner, Robbie Montgomery, is pictured. photo by George Burns, Harpo Productions
Andre Montgomery joined the “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s” cast around 2011 after he came to live with his grandmother, Miss Robbie.
The show depicted Miss Robbie and her grandson visiting the grave of his father, Miss Robbie’s son Andre Montgomery Sr., who was stabbed and killed during a fight in Los Angeles in 1995 when his son was an infant.
The younger Montgomery grew up in Lubbock, Texas, with his mother but would spend summers in St. Louis with Miss Robbie. He moved into her basement full time around 2010 after he had behavioral problems in Texas.
The teenager was a paid cast member of “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s,” appearing in a chicken costume in scenes promoting the family restaurant, pursuing a rap career and graduating from McCluer North High School in 2013.
But Miss Robbie’s grandson got kicked off “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s” by 2015 because he posted images with guns and what appeared to be marijuana on his social media accounts and refused to take them down, according to a police interview with Miss Robbie, who declined to be interviewed for this story.
Andre Montgomery Jr. in an image from "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's."
She told police her grandson moved for a few months back to Lubbock after his high school graduation, but was encouraged to return to St. Louis in September 2014 by his uncle, Norman, according to police records.
When he returned, Miss Robbie paid for an apartment for her grandson in the Central West End and his tuition for a community college music program, according to the records.
Eventually, however, Andre Montgomery stopped going to class and was asked to leave the apartment building because his landlord accused him of using marijuana, police said.
After that, he was renting a room in a boarding house for $120 a month and continued to work at Sweetie Pie’s up until May 2015, around the time of the burglary at his grandmother’s home.
That week, he asked for his final paycheck and left the city. He didn’t return for around nine months, but later explained to police he didn’t come back because family members were accusing him of the crime that took his grandmother’s life savings.
The burglary
“As I walked into the house, I immediately noticed the house was completely ransacked. Every closet and drawer was rummaged through and items were all over the house,” reads an account written by the St. Louis County police officer who responded to the burglary at Miss Robbie’s home.
Two handguns, at least $200,000 in cash, bottles of alcohol and gold and diamond jewelry were all stolen. Mink coats and designer clothes were thrown around the house.
Miss Robbie explained to police that she picked up the habit of keeping savings in cash when she was a backup singer, according to the police report. She told officers she would place a portion of her night’s earnings in her boot, and continued the habit through her life.
She told police she thought whoever broke into the house must have known her alarm code. Only a few close family members had access, including her son, Norman, and grandson, Andre Montgomery, the report said.
Police began to investigate Andre Montgomery because of his disappearance shortly after the burglary. He had told family members he had a gig for his rap group out of town, though relatives had never heard of him getting paid to perform before, according to interviews summarized in the police report.
Police also tracked photos Andre Montgomery posted to social media of him posing with large amounts of money and new clothes.
Police listed him as a suspect in the crime but he did not return to St. Louis until nine months after the burglary because he was facing a misdemeanor assault charge in Texas and not allowed to leave that state.
Once the Texas charge was dropped, he agreed to speak with police and traveled to St. Louis.
He told police he left St. Louis to be with a girl who was moving to Florida, but lied to family members because he didn’t think they would let him miss work for that reason.
He explained the cash he posed with on social media was given to him by the same girl, and she confirmed his account to police. Andre Montgomery told police he thought Norman was behind the burglary.
Norman was in California at the time of the break-in, but Andre Montgomery told officers he believed Norman had the influence to orchestrate it.
Andre Montgomery explained to officers at the time that his grandmother was trying to remove Norman from some Sweetie Pie’s business ventures. Miss Robbie eventually sued Norman in June 2016, claiming his operation of three out-of-state Sweetie Pie’s restaurants amounted to copyright infringement.
Andre Montgomery took a polygraph test at police headquarters on March 10, 2015, but the results were inconclusive. He told police he had used marijuana the night before so officers asked him to return later after a period of refraining from the drug.
Andre Montgomery was killed four days later, and St. Louis County police never applied for charges against anyone else in the burglary.
An alleged plot
Federal prosecutors wrote in an indictment announced in August that Norman took out $450,000 in life insurance policies on his nephew a year before the burglary in 2014, making himself the sole beneficiary.
By March 2016, prosecutors allege Norman hired Terica Ellis, 36, an exotic dancer who was working in Memphis at the time, to lure his nephew to a St. Louis location.
Ellis used to work at the Bottoms Up club in Metro East and had been intimate with Norman in the past, St. Louis police Detective Donald Thurmond testified at a Tennessee court hearing earlier this month.
Police believe Norman promised to pay her $10,000, Thurmond testified.
He testified that the night of the shooting, Andre Montgomery came out of a building on Natural Bridge Avenue to meet Ellis and a “third party” shot him.
Federal charging documents say in the days after the shooting Ellis deposited more than $9,000 in cash into several bank accounts. Norman is accused of then trying to collect on his nephew’s life insurance policies, but was never able to get the money, according to court documents.
Thurmond testified that Ellis told police that the burglary at Miss Robbie’s home had made Norman’s “boys” want to “get up on” his nephew.
Ellis and Norman were both indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, or murder for hire resulting in death. Norman also faces an additional charge of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud.
Norman’s life insurance agent Waiel “Wally” Yaghnam, 42, also was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. Yaghnam is accused of providing false information on the life insurance policies, including information about Andre Montgomery’s income. Yaghnam worked in life insurance after a career in the music industry that included producing rapper Nelly’s hit 2002 album “Nellyville.”
After the charges, TV clips from “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s” circulated showing Norman mourning the death he is now accused of setting up.
Norman visited the scene of the killing with his mother and TV cameras in a 2016 episode.
“Since Andre’s passing I haven’t gone through this part of the city,” Norman said on the show. “Really, I’ve been avoiding it.”
Shake off your afternoon slump with the oft-shared and offbeat news of the day, hand-brewed by our online news editor, Mandy St. Amand.
September 21, 2020 at 12:30PM
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Police report reveals new details in lead-up to killing of Sweetie Pie’s owner’s grandson - STLtoday.com
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