A former Missouri high school principal will spend the rest of his days in federal prison for killing a pregnant teacher.
United States District Court Judge Ronnie L. White of the Eastern District of Missouri ordered Cornelius M. Green42, to serve two consecutive life sentences for the 2016 murders of Jocelyn Peters30, and her unborn child, authorities announced in a press release.
Green, who was married at the time, previously admitted to hiring a friend to kill Peters, who was seven months pregnant at the time. The money to pay for the crime was taken from funds stolen from the school where the principal and the victim worked.
The defendant pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to commit murder for hire and murder for hire.
The friend who pulled the trigger for $2,500, Phillip J. Cutlerwas found guilty of the same charges and similarly sentenced to two life sentences by Judge White, who called the crime the “most heinous” he had seen in his career.
He tried to secretly give her abortion pills
Prosecutors said Green had been lying to Peters about their marital situation and had convinced her that he was in the middle of a divorce, and that Peters was the only woman in his life. But the evidence showed that Peters was one of several women Green was datingand turned to murder after failing to give Peters abortion pills without her knowing.
“Peters knew nothing about the other women, including at least one who was also being deceived by Green into believing they were building a life together,” federal prosecutors wrote in a news release.
“She didn’t know either. Green was researching ways to secretly poison the baby crushing pills and hiding them in oats. When that plan failed, Green contacted his old friend, Cutler, and stole money from the dance team fundraiser at the school where he worked.
Several people took the opportunity to address the court during the sentencing hearing. Peters’ mother said Green was supposed to be a protector for her daughter, but instead he became her executioner. “All she did was love him,” she said, adding that Peters “loved that baby so much.”
He traveled to Chicago to have an alibi
According to court documents, Green sent Cutler a text message on Feb. 29, 2016, asking him to come from Oklahoma to Missouri at the end of March. Cutler responded: “Okay, that will work, you will send the package (sic).”
On March 7, 2016, Green sent a UPS package containing $2,500 in cash to Cutler. Records further indicate that Green used the high school’s address as the return address for the package containing the cash, which Green had taken from the school.
Cutler arrived in St. Louis on March 21 and began staying at the residence where Green lived with his sister, authorities said. The next 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 her unborn child.
Two days later, on March 24, Cutler drove Green’s car to Peters’ apartment at 4200 West Pine Boulevard in St. Louis. He used keys provided by Green to illegally enter her home, found her in bed and “shot her with a .38-caliber handgun 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 “to verify that he was in Chicago at the time of the murder.”
When Green returned to St. Louis, repeatedly asked Peters’ mother to ‘check on him’knowing what he would find, prosecutors said.
“The depravity of asking a mother to go get Jocelyn’s body, knowing she was dead, is beyond compare,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Becker.
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