A 42-year-old Missouri middle school principal who killed a staff member who was expecting his daughter will serve out the remainder of his life in a federal prison.
Cornelius M. Green was given two consecutive life sentences by U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie L. White of the Eastern District of Missouri on Tuesday for the 2016 killings of 30-year-old Jocelyn Peters and her unborn child, Micah Leigh, according to police.
Green, who was married at the time, had previously acknowledged that he had used money taken from the school where he and the victim worked to hire his friend to kill Peters, who was seven months pregnant at the time.
In February, he entered a guilty plea to one count of murder for pay and conspiracy to commit murder for hire.
Phillip J. Cutler, the friend who fired the trigger for the $2,500, was found guilty of the same counts and given two consecutive life sentences in jail. White described the act as the “most heinous” he had witnessed in his time on the bench.
According to the prosecution, Green had been lying to Peters about his marital status and had led her to believe that she was the only woman in his life and that he was going through a divorce.
However, evidence revealed that Peters was just one of the women Green was meeting; after failing to provide Peters an abortion pill without her knowing, he went to murder.
“Peters did not know about the multiple other women, including at least one who was also being duped by Green into believing they were building a life together,” federal prosecutors stated.
“She also did not know that Green was researching ways to secretly poison Micah Lee by crushing pills and hiding them in oatmeal or yogurt. When that plan failed, Green contacted his longtime friend, Cutler, and stole money from the dance team’s fundraiser at the school where he worked.”
Several people used the Tuesday sentencing session as an opportunity to address the judge.
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According to Peters’ mother, Green was meant to be her daughter’s guardian but ended up being her executioner. She continued, saying that Peters “loved that baby so much” and that “all she ever did was love him.”
When Peters worked at Mann Elementary, Nicole Conaway, the principle, highlighted how he used money from his own pupils to finance the hit on his girlfriend.
“He literally stole from children to pay for killing his own child,” Conaway stated.
Conaway added that it was her responsibility to inform Peters’ students of her murder.
“I will never forget the pain in their eyes,” she stated. “This trauma will follow them for the rest of their lives.”
Court records show that on February 29, 2016, Green texted Cutler, requesting that he go from Oklahoma to Missouri by the end of March. “All right, that will work, u gonna b sending the pacge (sic),” Cutler said.
Green sent Cutler a UPS package on March 7, 2016, that contained $2,500 in cash. Records also show that Green took money from the school and used the middle school’s address to return the package containing the cash.
On March 21, Cutler arrived in St. Louis and took up residence at the home where Green and his sister resided, according to the authorities. Green left Cutler with his car and the apartment keys after taking an Amtrak to Chicago the next day.
Green, according to the prosecution, only went to Chicago in order to provide an alibi for the killings of Peters and their unborn child.
Cutler took Green’s vehicle to Peters’ apartment on the 4200 block of West Pine Boulevard in St. Louis two days later, on March 24.
Prosecutors alleged that he broke into her house with the keys that Green had given him, found her in bed, and “shot her with a.38 caliber firearm in the head, using a potato as a silencer to muffle the sound of the shot.” A few days prior to her own death, Green had Peters purchase potatoes.
Subsequently, Green bought a ticket for the Amtrak train to return to St. Louis, “to ensure confirmation that he was in Chicago during the murder.”
Prosecutors claim that Green regularly urged Peters’ mother to “check on her” after returning to St. Louis, knowing full well what she would discover.
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