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Principal Cornelius Green believed he had meticulously orchestrated the murder of his pregnant girlfriend, leaving nothing to chance.
He carefully crafted an unbreakable alibi, selected an unconventional weapon to leave at the scene, devised an innovative method to finance the hit, and entrusted a reliable associate to execute the plan. Green appeared to have considered every detail.
However, he overlooked a crucial piece of evidence that swiftly dismantled his scheme, providing Jocelyn Peters’ family with the means to pursue justice for her and her unborn child. This revelation is explored in the April 5 episode of Oxygen’s A Plan to Kill.
In the spring of 2016, Peters, a cherished third-grade teacher, was eagerly anticipating the arrival of her baby, only a few months away from motherhood.
Peters had crossed paths with Green years earlier while they were both employed at St. Louis’ Mann Elementary, paving the way for their ill-fated relationship.
Peters and Green—a principal at Carr Lane Visual & Performing Arts Middle School—had met years earlier while both were working at St. Louis’ Mann Elementary.
“He was a good guy. It was a good relationship,” her mom Lacey Peters remembered. “She was really happy and ecstatic because this would have been her first child.”
But on March 24, Green returned from a trip to Chicago to visit friends and found Peters dead in her bed.
As Green told a 911 dispatcher, “It looks like my girlfriend’s been shot in the head.”
The 30-year-old—who was seven months pregnant at the time—had been ambushed as she slept with one fatal bullet wound to the back of her head that came out her eye, leaving a pool of blood on her pillow.
“I do not believe this poor woman ever knew what hit her before it happened,” St. Louis Police Sgt. Brian McGlynn said. “The whole thing was horrible.”
Detectives were also immediately struck by another perplexing detail: There were remnants of a strange substance on the body and splashed on the nearby walls.
After testing, detectives discovered that someone had used a potato—taken from a bag in Peters’ kitchen—as a makeshift silencer, leaving parts of the exploded vegetable all over the crime scene.
“This was not a burglary type homicide,” McGlynn said. “It looked like one of those old mafia movies.”
Investigators noted that there no signs of forced entry and nothing appeared to be missing. Gifts to celebrate her upcoming birth—including a onesie that read “I [heart] Daddy”—filled the apartment.
Cornelius Green’s Behavior Raises Suspicions of Detectives
Police also knew that it required a key—which could not be copied—to get into the apartment building itself, making it unlikely the beloved teacher had been targeted by a stranger.
Green told detectives he had been in Chicago visiting friends and had returned to St. Louis on the Amtrak train at 2:59 p.m. on March 24, an account that was backed up by surveillance footage from the station.
He was picked up at the station by his best friend Phillip Cutler, he said, and then made his way to Peters’ apartment to check on her after he had been unable to reach her.
Although Green seemed visibly upset, detectives noticed he wasn’t making a lot of eye contact in his initial interview and he admitted that he was still legally married to another woman, although he claimed to be in the process of a divorce.
Detectives suspicions were raised even further when they asked if they could search his vehicle—which Cutler had been driving while he was out of town—and Green refused.
“He became irate towards us and refused consent for any officers to look inside of his vehicle at that current time,” St. Louis Police Detective Mark Biondolino remembered. “You’re like, ‘This guy is obviously involved in something.’”
Police Learn Cornelius Green Was Juggling Multiple Women
While still at the police station, Green called his wife Stephanie Green and asked her to meet up with Cutler at a gas station so that they could secure his vehicle.
Investigators went to the gas station and brought the two in for questioning.
“Stephanie Green was shook up and in a fragile, emotional state while we’re speaking to her,” Biondolino said. “She had no idea that Cornelius was involved in this relationship with our victim, Jocelyn Peters and she was further unaware that Cornelius and Jocelyn were expecting a newborn child. It was kind of a bombshell that was dropped on her.”
Detectives learned it wasn’t the only relationship Green had been keeping from his wife. Another woman later came into the station to report that she too had been romantically involved with him for several years.
“She said that he was a womanizer,” Former St. Louis-Post Dispatch reporter Christine Byers explained, “and certainly it was another red flag for police.”
Focus Turns to Cornelius Green’s Friend, Philip Cutler
During their interview with Cutler, investigators learned that he’d traveled to St. Louis from his home in Oklahoma on March 21.
Then, at one point while he was left alone in the interview room, Cutler took out a small notebook, tore out a page and ate it.
“My immediate reaction was, what in the heck?” Biondolino recalled. “There’s no doubt in my mind that piece of paper was a direct connection to him and the murder that just occurred.”
Still, investigators needed evidence to link him to the crime. And, they found it after finding surveillance footage which showed Green’s car turn onto Peters’ street at 2:59 a.m. the morning of the murder. The same car was spotted leaving at 3:48 a.m.
Detectives believed Green had given his friend keys to both his vehicle and Peters’ apartment building before he went out of town to carry out the hit.
Digital Evidence Links Cornelius Green, Philip Cutler to Jocelyn Peters’ Murder
Phone and text message records showed that shortly after speaking on the phone to Cutler, Green decided to accompanied Peters on a trip to Aldi just days before her death and purchased the bag of potatoes that would later be used to silence the murder weapon.
They also found Google searches on his devices that dated back to the start of the pregnancy, where Green had searched for ways to mask the taste of an abortion pill and why a heartbeat could still be seen after an abortion pill.
“Cornelius made some fairly sinister efforts to get rid of this pregnancy,” forensic psychologist Rod Hoevet explained. “And when that didn’t work, he arrived at the conclusion that Jocelyn Peters was a liability that he needed to get rid of.”
Cutler’s phone records also placed him near Peters’ apartment at the time of the murder and showed that he’d driven to a park near the Missouri River, where investigators believe he likely tossed the murder weapon.
Text messages between the Cutler and Green showed that after Green asked his friend to visit, he responded by saying, “don’t forget to send the package.”
Days later, investigators said there was a record of a package being sent to Cutler, which they believe likely included money for the hit.
In one final cold-blooded twist, detectives spoke to a dance instructor at Green’s middle school who told them that just weeks before the murder, $2,700 had been stolen from the middle school dance program. The instructor had seen Green near the money at the time and believed he had taken it.
According to Biondolino, “We believe that $2,700 is the payment Cornelius Green sent to Phillip Cutler to kill Jocelyn Peters.”
Where are Cornelius Green and Phillip Cutler Now?
Both men were arrested in June 2016.
“I was glad it finally happened,” Peters’ mom said of learning the news. “But you know, I just wanted my daughter and granddaughter back.”
Green pleaded guilty in 2024 to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and one count of murder-for-hire and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
That same year, Cutler was found guilty in a federal trial on the same charges and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.