A former middle school principal from St. Louis was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison after arranging the gruesome killing of his pregnant girlfriend, a well-liked elementary school teacher who was shot in the eye while making baby shower invitations in bed.
Cornelius Green was given two back-to-back life sentences for hiring his longtime associate Phillip Cutler to murder Jocelyn Peters, who was 31 weeks pregnant with Green’s child when she was killed on March 24, 2016. Cutler, 46, also received two consecutive life sentences for carrying out the crime that U.S. District Judge Ronnie L. White described as the most horrific he had witnessed in his career.
The disturbing case, detailed in a recent episode of CBS News’ true-crime series “48 Hours,” uncovered a pattern of manipulation and betrayal that resulted in the deaths of Peters and her unborn daughter, whom she intended to name Micah Leigh.
Green worked as principal at Carr Lane Visual & Performing Arts Middle School. Although married, he led Peters, a third-grade teacher at Horace Mann Elementary School, to believe he was getting divorced. Peters was unaware that Green was involved with several other women, at least one of whom he also misled about their relationship.
This was not Peters’ first pregnancy with Green. She had a miscarriage once and terminated another pregnancy at his request. For this pregnancy, the 30-year-old teacher resolved to carry her baby to term—a choice that ultimately cost her life.
While she was pregnant, Green investigated ways to poison the fetus by mixing crushed pills into oatmeal or yogurt, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Missouri. When that attempt didn’t work, he moved on to hiring someone to kill her.
Green and Cutler, who grew up together in Muskogee, Oklahoma, coordinated the murder through multiple phone calls. To pay for it, Green stole money from a school dance team fundraiser. On March 7, 2016, he mailed Cutler $2,500 in cash via UPS—using the school’s address as the return address.
“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 taught there.
The plan’s details are chilling. On March 21, 2016, Cutler traveled to St. Louis from Oklahoma and stayed at Green’s home. The next day, Green handed Cutler the keys to his white Kia Optima and to Peters’ apartment. He also took Peters grocery shopping and bought a 10-pound bag of potatoes so Cutler could use a potato as an improvised silencer for the gunshot. Green then left on an Amtrak train to Chicago to create an alibi.
In the early hours of March 24, 2016, Cutler drove Green’s car to Peters’ Central West End apartment on West Pine Boulevard, let himself in with Green’s keys, and shot the pregnant teacher in the eye with a .380-caliber gun while she was in bed working on baby shower invitations. At 6:14 a.m., Cutler notified Green that Peters and the baby were dead. Green immediately bought a return train ticket.
Adding to the cruelty, Green attempted to get Peters’ mother, Lacey Peters, to check on her daughter—despite knowing she was already dead. When Lacey couldn’t be reached, Green went to the apartment himself and called 911, feigning ignorance about what had happened.
The scheme began to fall apart that night when Cutler was stopped while trying to retrieve the Kia Optima from the crime scene at Green’s instruction. In a strange moment captured on surveillance, Cutler ate two pieces of paper from a notebook in his pocket, prompting investigators to suspect he was trying to destroy evidence.
Green and Cutler were indicted on March 9, 2022, on federal charges of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and murder-for-hire. Green insisted he was innocent for eight years before pleading guilty on February 28, 2024—two weeks before his scheduled trial. Cutler faced trial and was convicted by a jury in March 2024 after just over an hour of deliberation.
At Green’s sentencing on June 25, 2024, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Becker emphasized his cruelty. “The depravity of asking a mother to go find Jocelyn’s body, knowing she was dead, can’t be matched,” Becker said. Cutler had been sentenced the previous week to two consecutive life terms.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore noted the ongoing harm caused by the crime, saying Green’s “devastating actions” still impact the victims’ family, colleagues, friends, and young students. Dr. Conaway told the court how Peters’ death shattered the school community, including a student who threatened self-harm and said he wanted to be with his teacher.
Peters, remembered by coworkers as a “bright light” and a “natural teacher,” lost her life after trusting a man who viewed her and their child as obstacles to be removed. Both Green and Cutler will spend the remainder of their lives in federal prison with no possibility of parole.
