Principal pays friend school cash to kill pregnant girlfriend, feds say. He’s sentenced
A middle school principal “desperate to get out of the relationship and escape his responsibility” of his unborn child carried out an “unthinkable plan,” federal prosecutors said.
Cornelius Green pleaded guilty to hiring his friend to murder his pregnant girlfriend and was handed two life sentences June 25 by a Missouri judge, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.
“Mr. Green understood his choices and made the one that did not compound the tragedy of this situation,” Green’s attorney, Nicolas Williams, said in a statement to McClatchy News.
Green learned his girlfriend, Jocelyn Peters, was pregnant in October 2015, according to court documents. He had convinced her to terminate one pregnancy previously, and she had miscarried on another occasion, prosecutors said. This time, she wanted to keep the baby.
Green, however, had “pretended to be planning a life with Jocelyn, a young school teacher, but in reality, Green was juggling multiple women and his lifestyle was about to come crashing down,” prosecutors said.
As Green celebrated his girlfriend’s birthday and searched for homes for their family, he was also searching for ways to drug Peters with abortion pills to terminate her pregnancy, according to court documents.
The abortion attempts were “unsuccessful,” according to court documents, so Green turned to a friend he knew was in need of money.
Using money stolen from his school’s dance team fundraiser, Green sent a package with $2,500 to Phillip Cutler on March 7, 2016, prosecutors said.
Cutler arrived in St. Louis on March 21, when Green met him with the key to Peters’ apartment and his car, according to court documents.
Green then jumped on an Amtrak train to Chicago, prosecutors said.
Three days later, Cutler drove to Peters’ apartment and shot her as she was sleeping, prosecutors said. Cutler used a potato to muffle the sound of the gunshot, according to court documents.
The third-grade teacher’s death “devastated” her students and community members, prosecutors said.
“This talented, award-winning educator who was described as ‘magical’ would never be there again to greet students on their way into school each morning,” prosecutors said in Green’s sentencing memorandum.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI investigated the case, and “unlike his hitman, Green pleaded guilty,” prosecutors said.
A jury found Cutler guilty of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and murder-for-hire March 19, McClatchy News reported. He was given two life sentences June 18, according to news release from the U.S. attorney’s office.
Green, 42, pleaded guilty to the same charges in February, according to officials.
This story was originally published June 26, 2024 at 6:59 AM with the headline "Principal pays friend school cash to kill pregnant girlfriend, feds say. He’s sentenced."
