Jocelyn Peters was seven months pregnant and couldn’t wait for her baby boy to arrive. As she sat on her bed, writing baby shower invitations, she pictured the family she was building with her boyfriend, Cornelius Green, and the future they’d have together. Green was a principal at Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School in St Louis, Missouri. He’d been married when they met, but he had insisted he was getting a divorce and that’s what Jocelyn had told her family.
Jocelyn, who had recently turned 30, was a third-grade teacher at Horace Mann Elementary School in St Louis. She was popular and a natural with the young students. Everyone knew she was going to be an amazing mum, but it hadn’t been an easy road. Sadly, Jocelyn had already suffered a miscarriage, and when she’d fallen pregnant again, Green had persuaded her to have an abortion. But she was determined to be a mum this time and had already named her baby boy Micah Leigh.
Web of lies
It was March 2016 and Jocelyn was weeks away from giving birth. She had her own apartment in St Louis and Green lived nearby. It’s understandable that Jocelyn had plans to live with Green after the baby arrived – but she had no idea he was hiding something from her.
Jocelyn wasn’t the only woman in Green’s life. Not only was he not getting a divorce, he was seeing several other women. One, like Jocelyn, also believed they were building a serious life together.
Green had avoided being caught out as Jocelyn’s first two pregnancies hadn’t resulted in a baby – but with Micah well on his way, Green’s secrets were about to be revealed. Green was a married man and a principal at a school. The affair was undoubtedly going to cause a scandal.
On 25 March, Green made a frantic 911 call from Jocelyn’s apartment. He said he had gone round to check on his girlfriend because she hadn’t been returning his messages. When he arrived, he found Jocelyn dead in her bed, where she’d been writing baby shower invitations. She had been shot in the eye. Her baby had tragically died, too.
When the police arrived, they noticed there was no sign of a break-in. Someone had used a key and the killing of the much-loved teacher seemed personal.
Jocelyn had been shot in the head through her eye the night before. When detectives discovered Green was married and had a baby on the way with another woman, they saw signs of a motive.
Investigators questioned Green, who said he was in Chicago at the time of the shooting and train tickets confirmed it. He had an alibi for the killing. But surveillance footage near Jocelyn’s apartment captured Green’s Kia car parked at around 3am on 25 March – the night of the killing. The man driving it wasn’t Green and a sickening plot began to unravel.
Green had been involved in killing Jocelyn – he had simply paid someone else to do it. He wanted his pregnant girlfriend dead and while he hadn’t pulled the trigger, there was plenty of blood on his hands.
Investigators discovered that Green had researched ways to secretly poison Jocelyn so that she would lose the baby. He’d been crushing pills and hiding them in oatmeal and yoghurt, but it hadn’t worked.
Then he had contacted Phillip Cutler, a long-time friend who lived in Oklahoma, and, over the phone, he’d hired him to kill Jocelyn and their unborn baby. He agreed on a payment of $2,500. Green didn’t have the money, so he stole it from the dance team’s fundraiser at his school to pay for the murder.
Cutler agreed to travel to St Louis once the money had arrived. Green used his school’s address to send a courier package of cash to Cutler on 7 March.
Two weeks later, Cutler travelled to St Louis and stayed with Green. Green gave him keys to his Kia car and to Jocelyn’s apartment. On 22 March, Green bought a train ticket to Chicago so that he would have an alibi for the shooting.
On the night of 24 March, Cutler drove to Jocelyn’s home, let himself in with the key and shot her in the eye. He used a potato as a silencer to muffle the sound. CCTV at a grocery store recorded Jocelyn buying potatoes with Green in the days before her murder. She had unwittingly bought part of her own murder weapon.
The net closes in
Cutler’s mobile phone placed him at the scene. And after he confirmed the hit was done, Green bought a return train ticket and travelled home. Cutler disposed of evidence in a local park.
Green now wanted someone else to discover the body. Despicably, he contacted Jocelyn’s mum and asked her to “check on” her daughter, despite knowing she would walk in and find Jocelyn dead. But she wasn’t available, so he had to go himself to make the “discovery”.
Green was arrested and the police went to apprehend Cutler. When they told him he was being detained, he quickly swallowed two pieces of paper from a notebook in his pocket. It’s suspected it had incriminating information on it – but the police had enough to charge them both.
Jocelyn’s death was devastating for the community. Her students needed counselling, and her family mourned the tragic death of a mother and baby. She died without knowing how badly Green had betrayed her.
In February this year, Green pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and one count of murder-for-hire. A few weeks later, Phillip Cutler, 46, was found guilty of the same charges. He was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison. In June this year, Green, 42, was sentenced. He was given two consecutive life sentences like his counterpart. The judge called the killing the “most heinous” crime he’d seen in his whole career.
Jocelyn’s mum, Lacey Peters, said Green was supposed to protect Jocelyn but became her executioner. “All she ever did was love him, and she loved that baby so much,” she said. Jocelyn’s cousin, Dedra Peters, said, “Jocelyn had a light around her at all times” and that her death had left them all feeling empty and heartbroken.
A memorial garden has been set up at Jocelyn’s school so that students can go and remember the teacher who inspired them so much.
Green briefly apologised but there was little sympathy in court for a man who stole from children at his school to pay for the killing of his girlfriend and their unborn child. Green hadn’t wanted anyone to find out that he was a liar, but now the world knows he’s a cold-blooded killer.
