Previously charged with the murder of his pregnant girlfriend, Cornelius Green of St. Louis, Missouri, has pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire charges.
The plea agreement asks that the state-level charges of murder (for mother and baby), armed criminal action (against mother and baby), and burglary all be dropped if Green is allowed to be sentenced to life in prison. According to Yahoo! News, “The state charges carried the possibility of the death penalty.” These charges reflect the actions he took in 2016 as he hired his friend to kill his then pregnant girlfriend, Jocelyn Peters, and also embezzle money from his employer.
At the time of the murder, Green was the principal of Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School in St. Louis, while Peters taught third grade at a different school. Green was reportedly married but kept up relationships with multiple women, including Peters.
Prosecutors revealed that Green stole up to $2,700 from a school fund and used this to pay his friend, Philip Cutler, to travel to St. Louis and commit Peters’ murder. Green then established his own alibi by traveling to Chicago during the time of murder and later called 911 in an attempt to feign innocence.
Though the murder was perpetrated in 2016, Green and Cutler were not indicted until March 9, 2022, for conspiracy for hire and murder for hire. The indictment indicates that “Cutler traveled to the area of 4236 W. Pine in Green’s 2013 Kia Optima, unlawfully entered Jocelyn Peters’ apartment, Unit #201, found Peters in her bed, [and] shot her with a .380 caliber firearm in the head while using a potato as a silencer to muffle the sound of the shot.”
Yahoo! News notes, “The alleged hitman… called Green soon afterward to tell him Peters was dead – several hours later, at 6:40 a.m., the former principal bought an Amtrak ticket to return home, according to court documents.” When he arrived back in St. Louis, he pretended to discover Peters’ body at her apartment and called police.
Green is set to be sentenced on June 5th of this year. Cutler has opted for a trial, which is set to begin on March 11th.
Tragically, homicide is a leading cause of death for pregnant women in the United States.
