Cornelius M. Green (St. Louis City Justice Center) Jocelyn Peters (KSDK screenshot)
A former middle school principal in Missouri will likely spend the rest of his life in a federal correctional facility after admitting to having a pregnant teacher on his staff and her unborn child killed, even paying the hit man to do the deed with funds stolen from the school where he and the victim worked.
Cornelius M. Green, the onetime principal of Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of murder-for-hire and one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire in the 2016 slaying of 30-year-old Jocelyn Peters, who was seven months pregnant at the time, court records show. In the plea agreement, prosecutors recommended that Green be sentenced to life in prison.
His co-defendant in the case, longtime friend Phillip Cutler, is accused of gunning down the expecting teacher for $2,500. He has pleaded not guilty to the same two charges and is currently scheduled to begin his trial next month.
Phillip Cutler (St. Louis City Justice Center)
Prosecutors said that Green in 2015 was married to another woman when he became involved in an “ongoing romantic relationship” with Peters, who eventually became pregnant with Green’s child. Green and Cutler are said to have begun planning Peters’ murder sometime in early 2016.
According to the criminal indictment, Green on Feb. 29, 2016, sent Cutler a text message asking him to come from Oklahoma to Missouri at the end of March. Cutler responded, “Ok, that will work, u gonna b sending the pacge (sic).”
Green on March 7, 2016, sent a UPS package containing $2,500 in cash to Cutler. Records further state that Green used the address of the middle school as the return address for the package containing the cash, which Green had taken from the school.
“It was further part of the conspiracy that on or about March 8, 2016, in Oklahoma, Cutler received the package sent by Green, accepting the cash in exchange for his planned killing of Peters and her unborn child,” the indictment states.
Cutler on March 21 came to St. Louis and began staying at the residence where Green lived with his sister, authorities said. The following day, Green took an Amtrak to Chicago and left Cutler with his car and the keys to Peters’ apartment. Prosecutors said Green only traveled to Chicago to establish an alibi for the murder of Peters and their unborn child.
Two days later, on March 24, Cutler drove Green’s car to Peters’ apartment in the 4200 block of West Pine Boulevard in St. Louis. He used the keys provided by Green to unlawfully enter her home, found her in bed, and “shot her with a .38 caliber firearm in the head, using a potato as a silencer to muffle the sound of the shot,” prosecutors said.
Green then purchased an Amtrak ticket back to St. Louis “so there would be verification that he was in Chicago at the time of the murder.”
Green is currently scheduled to appear before U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie L. White of the Eastern District of Missouri on the morning of June 5 for his sentencing hearing.
