ST. LOUIS – A former St. Louis middle school principal appeared in federal court on Tuesday to be sentenced for paying a friend to kill his pregnant girlfriend in 2016.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said Cornelius M. Green, 42, pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and acting upon a murder-for-hire in the death of Jocelyn Peters. U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie White sentenced Green to two consecutive life sentences.

“I think that’s why I can move around, because the last thing that I said to my daughter—she   said, ‘I love you,’ and I said, ‘I love you, too.’ And that was the last time I physically saw my daughter,” Lacey Peters, Jocelyn’s mother, said.

The Peters family has endured heartache for more than eight years, waiting for justice.

“It was just unbelievable when I had to go and identify her. It was just like I was in a movie or something,” Lacey said. “I kept telling my aunt, ‘Just pinch me so I could wake up.’ It was like a nightmare. It’s just something I would not want any parent to go through.”

Phillip J. Cutler, 46, the man Green hired to kill Peters, was convicted in March on the same charges and sentenced on June 18 to two consecutive life sentences.

Peters was found shot to death inside her Central West End apartment on March 24, 2016. Peters, 30, was seven months pregnant at the time of her murder. She taught third grade at Horace Mann Elementary School in the Tower Grove neighborhood of south St. Louis.

Federal prosecutors reported that Green had sexual relationships with other women in a sentencing memo. He was also researching ways to secretly end Peters’ pregnancy. When that didn’t work, Green contacted Cutler, his longtime friend.

“It’s just a heartbreaking case where two defendants plotted to murder a beautiful, pregnant schoolteacher for senseless reasons,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Becker said. “To avoid child support and to continue a lifestyle of seeing multiple women and avoiding responsibility for a new child.”

On March 7, 2016, Green sent a UPS package to Cutler containing $2,500 as a retainer for the crime. Green, who was principal at Carr Lane Middle School at the time, used cash stolen from the school to pay for the murder.

“He literally stole from children to pay for killing his own child,” Dr. Nicole Conaway said. Conaway was principal at Mann Elementary when Peters worked there.

Dr. Conaway said she had to tell Peters’ class about her murder. “I will never forget the pain in their eyes,” she said. “This trauma will follow them for the rest of their lives.”

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Cutler arrived in town and Green fled to Chicago to establish an alibi on March 21. Three days later, Cutler went inside Peters’ apartment and shot her in the eye, using a potato as a silencer.

Peters was working on baby shower invitations when she was killed.

When Cutler confirmed to Green that both Peters and the unborn baby were dead, Green bought a train ticket and returned to St. Louis. Cutler traveled to North River Front Park to dispose of any evidence.

Green called the police when he arrived back at the apartment and reported Peters’ death. Prosecutors said he made several false statements to law enforcement, claiming he had no prior involvement or knowledge of the murder.

When Cutler was told he was being detained that same night, he ate two pieces of paper from a notebook in his pockets.

The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office previously charged Green with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action, and burglary, and said they would seek the death penalty in his case. Green pleaded guilty in federal court to avoid a death penalty trial in St. Louis Circuit Court. According to the plea agreement, the Circuit Attorney’s Office would dismiss its charges against Green if he’s sentenced to life imprisonment on each count in the federal case.

“Jocelyn was a bright light. She loved education, she loved teaching, she loved children; she was just a genuine, loving individual,” Dedra Peters, Jocelyn’s cousin, said.

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