A former Missouri principal has pleaded guilty in connection with a plot to murder a St. Louis teacher who was pregnant with his child.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri, former Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School principal Cornelius Green entered a guilty plea Wednesday to murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, related to the 2016 killing of Jocelyn Peters.
The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office agreed to drop state murder charges in exchange for a life sentence on the federal charges. His sentencing is scheduled for June 5, before U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie L. White.
Between February 29, 2016, and October 11, 2016, Green formulated a scheme to murder Peters and her unborn child, whom he was reportedly the father of. Green also provided financial compensation to a childhood friend, Phillip J. Cutler, to carry out the killing.
On or around March 7, 2016, Green sent a package containing $2,500 to Cutler, to an address in Oklahoma. As part of the conspiracy, Cutler then traveled to St. Louis on March 21, 2016, and stayed with Green.
“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,” prosecutors said, according to court documents
Cutler then drove to Peters’ apartment and shot her in the head with a .380 caliber firearm. Investigators said he utilized a potato as a silencer and shot her while she was in bed. Both Peters and her unborn baby died.
The following day, Green traveled to Chicago, purportedly to distance himself from the killing. He then bought an Amtrak ticket back to St. Louis to establish an alibi, claiming he was in Chicago during the murder.
When he arrived home, Green went to Peters’ apartment and called 911, feigning ignorance about the circumstances surrounding her death.
Court documents indicate that the former principal began a relationship with Peters, a 1st-grade teacher at Mann Elementary, in 2015, although he was married at the time. Prosecutors said he devised the murder plot, thinking his marriage and career were at stake.
Meanwhile, Cutler’s trial is scheduled for next month. He pleaded not guilty to the same charges against Green.
“I know that our family wasn’t the only person in St. Louis that loved my daughter,” Jocelyn’s mother, Lacy Peters, told FOX2 Now.
“She was someone who cared deeply about children, not only about their learning but about who they were in making them into better people.”
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[Feature Photo: Jocelyn Peters/Facebook]
