A former middle school principal from St. Louis will remain incarcerated for the remainder of his life after planning the savage killing of his pregnant girlfriend, a cherished elementary school educator who was shot in the eye as she prepared baby shower invitations while lying in her bed.
Cornelius Green was sentenced to two consecutive life terms for paying his long-time associate Phillip Cutler to murder Jocelyn Peters, who was carrying Green’s child at 31 weeks when she died on March 24, 2016. Cutler, 46, similarly received two consecutive life sentences for executing the killing that U.S. District Judge Ronnie L. White described as the “most heinous” crime he had seen in his career.
The disturbing case, examined in a recent installment of CBS News’ true-crime series “48 Hours,” exposes a network of deception and treachery that culminated in the deaths of Peters and her unborn baby girl, whom she intended to name Micah Leigh.
Green served as principal of Carr Lane Visual & Performing Arts Middle School. Though married, he convinced Peters, a third-grade educator at Horace Mann Elementary School, that he was ending his marriage. Peters was unaware that Green maintained relationships with several other women, including at least one whom he similarly misled into thinking they were planning a future together.
This pregnancy wasn’t Peters’ first with Green. She had previously experienced a miscarriage and ended another pregnancy when he pressured her to do so. However, this time, the 30-year-old educator was resolute in keeping her child. That choice would ultimately cost her her life.
While Peters was pregnant, Green investigated methods to poison the fetus by concealing crushed medications in oatmeal or yogurt, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Missouri. After that scheme proved unsuccessful, he resorted to hiring someone to commit murder.
Green and Cutler, childhood acquaintances from Muskogee, Oklahoma, coordinated the killing through multiple phone conversations. To finance the murder, Green embezzled funds from a school dance team fundraiser. On March 7, 2016, he mailed Cutler a UPS package with $2,500 in cash—utilizing his school’s address for the return label.
“He literally stole from children to pay for killing his own child,” said Dr. Nicole Conaway, who was principal of Horace Mann Elementary when Peters worked there.
The particulars of the conspiracy are disturbing. On March 21, 2016, Cutler journeyed from Oklahoma to St. Louis and lodged at Green’s home. The next day, Green provided Cutler keys to both his white Kia Optima and Peters’ residence. He also accompanied Peters to the grocery store, buying a 10-pound bag of potatoes so Cutler could utilize one as an improvised silencer to suppress the gunshot sound. Green subsequently boarded an Amtrak train to Chicago to create an alibi.
During the early morning of March 24, 2016, Cutler operated Green’s vehicle to Peters’ Central West End apartment on West Pine Boulevard. He entered with Green’s keys and fired a .380-caliber firearm into the pregnant teacher’s eye while she rested in bed creating invitations for her baby shower. At 6:14 a.m., Cutler notified Green that Peters and the baby had been murdered. Green promptly bought his return train ticket.
In an especially callous maneuver, Green subsequently attempted to persuade Peters’ mother, Lacey Peters, to visit her daughter—fully aware she was deceased. When Lacey couldn’t be reached, Green visited the apartment personally and contacted 911, acting as though he had no involvement in the murder.
The conspiracy started to fall apart that very evening when Cutler was apprehended while trying to recover the Kia Optima from the crime scene following Green’s instructions. In an unusual action documented on surveillance video, Cutler consumed two pieces of paper from a notebook in his pocket, arousing investigators’ suspicions regarding what evidence he was attempting to eliminate.
Green and Cutler were indicted on March 9, 2022, on federal charges of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and murder-for-hire. Green asserted his innocence for eight years before entering a guilty plea on February 28, 2024—merely two weeks before his trial was set to commence. Cutler proceeded to trial and was convicted by a jury in March 2024 after just over an hour of deliberation.
During Green’s sentencing hearing on June 25, 2024, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Becker underscored the extent of his wickedness. “The depravity of asking a mother to go find Jocelyn’s body, knowing she was dead, can’t be matched,” Becker told the court. Cutler had received his sentence of two consecutive life terms the week before.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore stressed the enduring consequences of the crime, noting that Green’s “devastating actions” continue to affect the victims’ family, colleagues, friends, and young students. Dr. Conaway testified to the court about how Peters’ murder traumatized the school community, including one student who expressed suicidal thoughts, stating a wish to be with his teacher.
Peters, characterized by colleagues as a “bright light” and “natural teacher,” paid the ultimate price for trusting in a man who viewed her and their child as obstacles to eliminate. Both Green and Cutler will spend the rest of their lives in federal prison without any chance of parole.
