Former principal pleads guilty to using school money to hire hitman to kill pregnant teacher

ST. LOUIS — A former middle school principal has pleaded guilty to a murder-for-hire plot that killed a pregnant teacher who was expecting his baby.

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Cornelius Green pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder for hire and murder for hire and according to KMOV, faces life in prison.

The guilty plea came at the federal level, and part of the agreement sees the dismissal of local murder charges if he is sentenced to life behind bars, KSDK reported.

Green was the principal of Carr Lane Visual Performing and Arts School while the woman he was accused of having murdered, Jocelyn Peters was a teacher at Mann Elementary School.

Green was married but was having an affair with Peters who was 27 weeks pregnant with his child when she was killed back in 2016, KMOV reported.

Officials said Green sent a text message to a childhood friend, asking him to come to St. Louis. Green paid the friend, identified as Phillip Cutler, $2,500, taken from Green’s school for the hit.

Green sent Cutler the money in a package, using Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts School as the return address, KSDK reported.

Cutler traveled from Oklahoma to Missouri on March 21, 2016, staying at Green’s home. Green eventually took a train to Chicago while leaving Cutler at his home with his car and keys to Peters’ apartment. The trip was going to be used as Green’s alibi, KSDK reported.

The Department of Justice in a 2022 news release announcing the indictment, said Philips had been shot in the head, adding that Cutler used a potato as a silencer on March 24, killing both the woman and her unborn child.

Green returned home later that day and went to Peters’ apartment, found her and called 911 to report she had been shot.

Cutler is also facing conspiracy to commit murder for hire and murder for hire and is expected to go on trial later this month.

Green and Cutler were indicted by a grand jury in 2022 for Peters’ death, according to the Department of Justice.

Green will be sentenced June 5, KTVI reported.

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