Former St. Louis principal pleads guilty after using school funds to hire a hitman to kill pregnant girlfriend 

A former principal of a Missouri middle school pleaded guilty Wednesday to felony charges related to a 2016 murder-for-hire conspiracy fueled by school funds.

Cornelius Green stole $2,500 from Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School in St. Louis to hire lifelong friend Phillip Cutler to murder Jocelyn Peters, a third-grade teacher six months pregnant with Green’s child at the time of her murder.

To establish an alibi, Green boarded an Amtrak train to Chicago two days before the murder and left behind his car keys and a key to Peters’ apartment.

On March 24 that year, Cutler “unlawfully entered Jocelyn Peters’ apartment … found Peters in her bed, shot her with a .380-caliber firearm in her head, using a potato as a silencer to muffle the sound of the shot,” according to court records. “Jocelyn Peters and her unborn child were killed as a result of co-defendant Cutler shooting Peters in the head.”  

Cutler then called Green to inform him that his girlfriend was dead, according to KSDK. Following the call, Green returned to St. Louis, went directly to Peters’ apartment and called the police to report her death.  

Nearly eight years after Peters’ murder, Green pled guilty to murder for hire and conspiracy to commit murder for hire. His sentencing is scheduled for June 5.  

If Green is sentenced to life in prison, all other state charges will be dropped in accordance with the plea agreement. The state charges, which include two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and one count of burglary, carry the possibility of the death penalty.  

According to KSDK, Green was legally married to another woman and involved in multiple other affairs.  

Cutler also was charged with murder for hire and conspiracy to commit murder for hire. His trial is scheduled to begin this month.