4th Person Charged In Murder-For-Hire Linked To Sweetie Pie’s Family

Nov. 12--ST. LOUIS -- A fourth person faces charges in connection to the fatal shooting of Andre Montgomery Jr., the grandson of the owner of Sweetie Pie's restaurants in the St. Louis area.

Montgomery's uncle has already been charged in his death, which authorities say was a murder-for-hire plot. Both Montgomery and his uncle, James Timothy "Tim" Norman, appeared on the "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" reality television show that ran for five seasons on OWN.

Travell Anthony Hill was charged by complaint in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on Nov. 3 with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and arrested three days later. He has now been indicted on that charge, prosecutors said Thursday.

Prosecutors say Hill participated in the conspiracy to kill Montgomery in St. Louis in 2016, but they did not reveal his role other than to say another defendant tipped Hill to Montgomery's location before he was shot. They also said in court documents that two days after the shooting Hill was paid $5,000 and "laughed about it ... with his brother on recorded jail phone calls."

Hill joins three others who are facing charges in the case. Charging documents say Norman took out $450,000 worth of life insurance on Montgomery before his death, with help from an insurance agent, Waiel Rebhi Yaghnam.

Terica Taneisha Ellis was paid $10,000 to lure Montgomery to the place where he was killed and tip off Hill and Norman, prosecutors said.

Ellis and Norman each face a murder-for-hire charge, and Norman and Yaghnam face a charge of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. Yaghnam also faces five counts of aggravated identity theft.

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