The principal of a school admitted that he hired a hitman to kill the teacher with whom he had an affair when it was discovered that she was pregnant with his child, and allegedly used school funds to pay for the murder.
Cornelius Green, the former principal of Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School in St. Louis, Missouri, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire in 2016.The murder of Jocelyn Peters, according to law and crime.
The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office agreed to dismiss the state murder charge if he is sentenced to life in prison on the federal charges.
His plea deal ensured that the sadistic former educator would not face the death penalty for his crimes.
According to , Green began an “ongoing romantic relationship” with Peters while he was married to another woman in late 2015. court documents.
Peters, a third-grade teacher at Horace Mann Elementary School in St. Louis, soon became pregnant with Green’s child.
Green asked her childhood friend, Philip J. Cutler, to collaborate on the hit film in February 2016, knowing that her pregnancy could jeopardize her marriage and even her career.
On February 29, 2016, Green sent Cutler a text message asking him to come to Missouri from Oklahoma at the end of March, to which Cutler replied, “Okay, that’ll work, I’m going to send the package (sic).” did.According to court records obtained by law and crime.
He paid Mr. Culter $2,500, funds allegedly stolen from the middle school, to seal the deal.
According to , the former principal allegedly used the school’s address as the return address for packages containing cash. law and crime.
“It was also part of the conspiracy that on or about March 8, 2016, in Oklahoma, Cutler received a package sent by Greene and received cash in exchange for the plot to kill Peters and her unborn child,” prosecutors said. . I have written In the indictment.
Cutler then traveled from Oklahoma to St. Louis and stayed at Green’s home on March 21, 2016.
Greene took an Amtrak train to Chicago the next day to create an alibi so he could carry out the murder while Cutler was out of state.
Cutler used Green’s car to drive to Peter’s apartment in St. Louis on March 24 and entered his home using a key provided by the former principal.
“The killer shot Peters in the head with a .38 caliber gun and used a potato as a silencer to muffle the sound of the shots,” prosecutors said. I have written.
Peters was 27 weeks pregnant when she was killed.
After Culter committed the murder, Greene purchased an Amtrak ticket to St. Louis “to prove that he was in Chicago at the time of the murder.”
Upon returning to St. Louis, Green went to Peters’ apartment and called 911 to report that she had been shot. According to court documents, she “feigned ignorance of the circumstances that led to her death.”
The plot was unraveled when surveillance cameras near the apartment showed Green’s car on the street in Peter around 3 a.m. on March 24, the documents said, but that time was “in the range of the victim’s time of death. It is said that it was inside. obtained According to the Washington Post in 2016.
“Historically accurate location information obtained from Cutler’s cell phone provider indicates that his phone was located near the victim’s apartment at the time,” the document states.
Green will appear for a sentencing hearing on June 5 in the Eastern District of Missouri.
Mr. Cutler was also charged by the federal government with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and murder-for-hire, but he has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. His trial is scheduled to begin on March 11th.
