In March of 2016, the life of 30-year-old Jocelyn Peters, a third-grade teacher at Mann Elementary School in St. Louis, was tragically cut short. Peters, who was seven months pregnant with a baby boy she planned to name Micah Leigh, was found fatally shot in her Central West End apartment. The discovery was made by her boyfriend, Cornelius M. Green, who called 911 to report the incident.
There were no signs of forced entry, and a weapon was not recovered at the scene.
The investigation into the death of the beloved teacher soon revealed a sinister plot. Suspicion fell upon her boyfriend, Cornelius M. Green, who was the principal of Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School and was also married to another woman. It was discovered that Green was leading a double life, involved with multiple women, and had led Peters to believe he was divorcing his wife. Faced with the impending birth of his child with Peters, Green initially researched ways to secretly terminate the pregnancy. When that failed, he orchestrated a murder-for-hire plot.
Green enlisted a longtime friend, Phillip J. Cutler, from Muskogee, Oklahoma, to carry out the murder for a payment of $2,500, which Green had stolen from a school dance team fundraiser. To establish an alibi, Green took a train to Chicago after providing Cutler with keys to his car and Peters' apartment. On March 24, 2016, Cutler entered Peters' apartment and shot her as she was preparing baby shower invitations. He used a potato as a makeshift silencer for the gunshot. After receiving confirmation of the murder from Cutler, Green returned to St. Louis. In a chilling attempt to feign innocence, he first tried to have Peters' mother discover the body before going to the apartment himself to call the police.
Both Cornelius M. Green and Phillip J. Cutler were eventually arrested and faced federal charges for their roles in the murder-for-hire scheme. In February 2024, Green pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and murder-for-hire. A jury found Cutler guilty of the same charges in March 2024. Both men were subsequently sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison. During the sentencing, the judge described the crime as one of the most heinous he had ever seen.
