Married Mo. Principal Got Teacher in His School District Pregnant, Then Paid Someone to Kill Her
Cornelius Green pleaded guilty to federal murder-for-hire charges
Jocelyn Peters/Facebook, St. Louis City Justice Center
Jocelyn Peters and Cornelius GreenA former middle school principal pleaded guilty to federal murder-for-hire charges after hiring someone to kill his girlfriend and unborn child.
According to the plea agreement reviewed by PEOPLE, Cornelius Green, who worked for St. Louis Public Schools in Missouri, paid a man $2,500 to kill Jocelyn Peters, who was 27 weeks pregnant with Green’s child in March 2016.
Green was married to another woman at the time, but was engaged in romantic relationships with several other women, including Peters, who worked as a teacher, the agreement says.
The man Green is accused of paying to commit the murder, Phillip Cutler, is set to go on trial for murder-for-hire in March.
Nearly a month before Peter was killed, prosecutors allege that Green texted Cutler asking him to come to St. Louis. The plea agreement states that Green then stole money from the school where he worked and used it to pay Cutler.
Related: Former Principal Accused of Murder-for-Hire in Death of Pregnant Teacher Girlfriend
According to the court documents, Green allegedly provided Cutler with keys to a car and to Peters’ apartment before traveling to Chicago so he could have an alibi.
Prosecutors allege that Cutler then entered Peters' apartment on March 24 and shot her in the head before calling Green to inform him he had done it.
That same day, Green bought a train ticket and returned to St. Louis and went to Peters’ apartment, then reported to authorities that she had been killed.
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According to the plea deal, Green expects to be sentenced to life in prison for murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. If he is sentenced to life, state prosecutors will drop murder charges against him, for which he could have faced the death penalty.
Peters was beloved by her community and is remembered as someone who cared about others.
“I know that our family wasn’t the only person in St. Louis that loved my daughter,” her mother, Lacey Peters, told KTVI at the time.
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