Naman Shrestha
In CBS’ ’48 Hours: Jocelyn Peters and the Notebook,’ the primary focus is on the tragic murder of 30-year-old Jocelyn Peters and her unborn child, Micah Leigh, in St. Louis, Missouri, in March 2016. During the investigation, the detectives uncovered a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by her then-boyfriend and the father of her unborn child — Cornelius Green. In order to evade law enforcement, he took a trip out of the state and hired a hitman to carry out the killing for him.
Cornelius Green Hired His Childhood Friend to Get His Pregnant Girlfriend Killed
Born in the early 1980s, Cornelius M. Green was a married man living in St. Louis, Missouri. As per reports, despite being married, the principal of Carr Lane Visual Performing Arts School was also romantically involved with a few other women, including a third-grade teacher named Jocelyn Delores Peters at Mann Elementary. Per court records, he told Jocelyn he would divorce his wife and start a new life with her. He had reportedly once urged her to terminate her pregnancy when she got pregnant with his child. In 2015, she became pregnant again, but this time, she was determined to keep the child, whom she planned to name Micah Leigh. What she wasn’t aware of, the prosecution argued, was that Cornelius was looking for ways to poison her and terminate the pregnancy by drugging her with crushed pills mixed in her meal.
According to reports, when that plan didn’t work out, he got in touch with his childhood friend based in Oklahoma, Phillip J. Cutler, whom he hired to kill Jocelyn for $2,500. Cornelius stole the money from the dance team’s fundraiser at Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School, where he was employed as the principal. In March 2016, he sent Phillip the money and asked him to come to St. Louis to carry out the killing. The hired hitman traveled to St. Louis on March 21, and Cornelius gave him the keys to his 2013 white Kia Optima and to Jocelyn’s apartment. Before taking a train to Chicago to establish an alibi for himself, he ensured he kept some potatoes at her house so his friend could use one as a silencer.
After Phillip killed Jocelyn and her unborn child in her apartment in the 4200 block of West Pine Boulevard on March 24, 2016, Cornelius returned to St. Louis by train and reported the murder to the authorities, pretending that he had no involvement in the crime. A few months later, in August 2016, he was accused of stealing $2,700 from the Carr Lane Visual Performing Arts School’s dance group’s fundraiser. Soon, in October, the investigators also linked him to the murder-for-hire plot, for which Phillip had already been arrested and charged. Cornelius was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action, as well as three counts of receiving stolen property.
Cornelius Green is Currently Incarcerated at a West Virginia Prison Facility
On February 28, 2024, Cornelius M. Green pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and one count of murder-for-hire to avoid receiving the death penalty for orchestrating the murders of Jocelyn Peters and her unborn child, Micah Leigh. During the hearing, he admitted to hiring his friend, Phillip Cutler, to carry out the killings. Meanwhile, the hitman was convicted of the charges against him, including conspiracy to murder-for-hire and murder-for-hire.
A few months later, on June 25, 2024, Cornelius was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison for his involvement in the murder of his pregnant girlfriend. During the sentencing hearing, Jocelyn’s mother, Lacey Peters, took the stand and stated that the convict was supposed to be her protector but ended up becoming her killer. “All she ever did was love him and she loved that baby so much,” she added. As of today, the 44-year-old former principal is serving his sentence at the United States Penitentiary, Hazelton (USP Hazelton) in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia.
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