In a shocking revelation, Cornelius Green, the former principal of Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School in St. Louis, Missouri, admitted guilt on Wednesday for hiring a hitman to murder Jocelyn Peters, a teacher with whom he had been having an affair. This development unfolded after it was discovered that Peters was pregnant with Green's child, prompting him to allegedly resort to using school funds to finance the murder.
According to police reports, Green pleaded guilty to one count of murder-for-hire and one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire for the killing that took place in 2016. The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office agreed to drop state murder charges against Green in exchange for a life sentence on the federal charges.
Court documents reveal that Green initiated a romantic relationship with Peters while still married another woman in late 2015. When Peters became pregnant, Green feared the revelation could ruin his marriage and career, leading him to enlist the help of his childhood friend, Phillip J. Cutler, in February 2016.
Green allegedly paid Cutler $2,500, funds which were purportedly stolen from the middle school, to carry out the murder. He even used the school's address as the return address for the cash package sent to Cutler. The hitman, armed with a .38 caliber firearm and using a potato as a makeshift silencer, fatally shot Peters in her apartment while she lay in bed, prosecutors stated.
To establish an alibi, Green left town on an Amtrak train to Chicago the day before the murder, leaving Cutler to execute the crime. He then returned to St. Louis after the killing and falsely reported Peters' death to authorities, feigning ignorance of the circumstances.
The plot began to unravel when surveillance footage captured Green's car near Peters' apartment around the time of the murder. Historical location data from Cutler's cell phone also placed him near the crime scene during the incident.
Green is scheduled for sentencing on June 5 in the Eastern District of Missouri. Meanwhile, Cutler, who faces federal charges of murder-for-hire conspiracy and murder-for-hire, maintains his innocence and is set to stand trial starting on March 11.
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