Man facing questions about Missouri teacher’s murder caught on camera eating pages of notebook

Lead homicide detective Mark Biondolino began the investigation into Jocelyn Peters’ murder on March 24, 2016. Since then, he has remained connected to the case even though he’s now retired from the St. Louis, Missouri, Police Department. 

Mark Biondolino: I think you have a responsibility to do that. 

Anne-Marie Green: You wanted to see it to the end. 

Mark Biondolino: You gotta see it to the end … 

Mark Biondolino: … if you’re working in homicide … you’re not just gonna let it fall by the wayside. 

We took a drive to the city’s Central West End neighborhood. Nestled among the historic homes is Jocelyn Peters’ apartment building. 

Anne-Marie Green: Her apartment’s right up there. 

Mark Biondolino: Yeah … It’s the second-floor balcony you see that’s, uh,  directly in front of us. 

Anne-Marie Green: Is it easy to access that apartment? 

Mark Biondolino: From the outside? Absolutely not … I mean, it’s a tremendous distance from the ground up to that balcony.

A curious crime scene

Jocelyn Peters lived in Apartment 201. The 30-year-old, third grade teacher had been murdered in the middle of the night while she was sleeping in her bed. Authorities believe she was killed between 3 a.m. and 3:40 a.m. 

Anne-Marie Green (outside apartment building): How do you get inside the building? 

Mark Biondolino: So, this is the front foyer entry way to the apartment complex … you’d have to use your, uh, your key to get in through that front foyer, and then go up the stairs, directly at the top of the banister of the staircase.

Jocelyn’s boyfriend Cornelius Green had been in Chicago for three days. When he returned to St. Louis on Thursday March 24, he told investigators he drove his car — a white Kia Optima — straight to her place. Jocelyn’s mother Lacey Peters says she received an alarming call from Cornelius soon after. 

Lacey Peters: When he called me, he told me that he went to go check on her and she was … on the floor.

Dedra Peters, Jocelyn’s aunt, says she had heard something was wrong with her niece. She immediately began driving towards her apartment. But before she could get there —  

Dedra Peters: Lacey had called … and she said “Dedra pull over” … and I don’t remember anything that happened at that point because I lost it. 

Police had given Lacey news no mother wants to hear. Jocelyn, her eldest daughter, was dead.

Lacey Peters: I just remember … just crying and just screaming. …This couldn’t be true. 

Authorities say there were no signs of forced entry at Jocelyn’s apartment. The wood door at the main entrance appeared secure and sturdy. 

Mark Biondolino: The landlord … was hyper secure over who had keys and what type of keys are used to get into that building. 

Mark Biondolino: The keys … were non-duplicatable … they’re unable to be duplicated … if you took it to a locksmith, they’re not allowed to make a copy for you or they could lose their … certification. 

It was no surprise to investigators that Cornelius had keys to Jocelyn’s place. While they didn’t live together, they had been in an intimate relationship for 5 years. Jocelyn was seven months pregnant and Cornelius was the father. 

Dedra Peters: Jocelyn felt that he’d make a wonderful father.

In Jocelyn’s home, investigators discovered a guest list, as well as invitations inspired by “Alice in Wonderland” for her upcoming baby shower. Biondolino and his team had a lot of questions about the crime scene. 

Mark Biondolino: Had the apartment been ransacked? Had it looked like there’d been a struggle? 

Anne-Marie Green: Do you see any of that? 

Mark Biondolino: Absolutely not … It didn’t even remotely look disturbed.

Jocelyn’s cellphone was missing. A single shell casing from a .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol was discovered on the floor near the nightstand. 

Mark Biondolino: From my investigative standpoint, we saw that she was laying on her side … head facing the headboard … she had a apparent wound to her eye. 

And there was something investigators had never seen before — potato fragments splattered in the bedroom.

Mark Biondolino:  … splattered about in the headboard, pieces of it on the victim, around her head and around her pillow and around behind where her head was.

They soon had a theory. 

Mark Biondolino: We believe the potato was used as a … makeshift suppression silencer … to silence the sound of the firearm being fired   

Biondolino showed us how authorities believe the killer used it. 

Mark Biondolino: I would imagine that the shooter would have the gun — I’m right-handed so he’d be holding a gun in his right hand and he’d have to put that potato out over the barrel of the gun. 

Anne Marie-Green: What’s the risk? How dangerous is that? 

Mark Biondolino: I mean, I think — I’m no gun expert by any means, but I think that’s — it falls in that category of extremely dangerous and extremely risky. 

Anne-Marie Green: Can a potato work as a silencer? 

Mark Biondolino: I believe it did in this scenario … and I say that because when we did our canvas, when we, you know, looked for calls for service in the area around the time of this murder … nobody ever indicated or made a call that they’d heard a gunshot. 

Whoever killed Jocelyn Peters may have silenced the gunshot in her apartment, but outside surveillance cameras on the street were recording. Shortly after 3 a.m. on the day of the murder, one of the cameras captured an image of a white sedan. The vehicle was eerily similar to Cornelius Green’s car — a white Kia Optima.

A beloved and dedicated teacher

When Jocelyn Peters graduated from college, she knew she wanted to be a teacher.

Tierrus Tucker: We were gonna be both teaching third grade, and so there were things that we had to like figure out. 

Tierrus Tucker first met Jocelyn when they started teaching at Mann Elementary. 

Anne-Marie Green: Why do you think teaching was so important to her.

Tierrus Tucker: Jocelyn … I think that she felt this sense of urgency, to make sure that she was giving back to students.

Jocelyn knew a quality education would be a game changer for kids and she wasn’t afraid to tackle thorny issues facing St. Louis public schools. 

JOCELYN PETERS | YouTube: 80 percent of elementary schools do not employ full time art, music, or physical education teachers.

Nicole Conaway: She was always checking out what she could do differently to meet the kids’ needs … 

Nicole Conaway, the former principal at Mann Elementary school, had met Cornelius Green, a middle school principal, at a work retreat. She had been looking to hire a third-grade teacher and Cornelius recommended Jocelyn.

Nicole Conaway: He called me and said … I have a candidate for you … She’s great.

At the time she had no idea Cornelius was in a relationship with Jocelyn.

Nicole Conaway: I brought her in and interviewed her … and about 15, 20 minutes in … I said, could you please step in the hallway while we talk about you … so I brought her back in and I offered her the job in that moment.

Anne-Marie Green: Fifteen minutes in?

Nicole Conaway: She was a bright light, she always has been … she talked about how she wanted to be invested … and care for children, and she wanted to teach them.

In 2014, Jocelyn Peters received one of the most prestigious honors for educators in St. Louis.

Nicole Conaway: She … was awarded the Pettus Excellence Award for the district.

Anne-Marie Green: What is that recognizing?

Nicole Conaway: It’s recognizing excellence in the classroom … We were very proud of her. 

By the spring of 2016, she was also fulfilling some personal dreams. She surprised her mother Lacey with the news. 

Jocelyn was expecting a baby girl and had named her Micah Leigh. 

Nicole Conaway: We were all very excited for her.

And the father to be, Cornelius Green, appeared to be a good match for Jocelyn. Cornelius was in a fraternity and she was active in her sorority. And, like Jocelyn, he was an award-winning educator.

According to her family, he seemed smitten from the start.

Lacey Peters: He actively pursued her … 

Dedra Peters: He started giving her flowers – 

Anne-Marie Green: Mm-hmm.

Dedra Peters:  — and gifts and was very persistent. 

Jocelyn’s friend Tierrus also noticed how attentive he was. 

Tierrus Tucker: Jocelyn and I … we ran a 5K a couple of times … and he was at the 5K … so he seemed really supportive in that way.

Anne-Marie Green: How did she talk about the relationship? What were her hopes and dreams for it? 

Tierrus Tucker: I know that Jocelyn … wanted to be married and that … she wanted a family … and I recall her and him like going to go look at houses. 

But Jocelyn, she says, had grown frustrated with Cornelius during the process. 

Anne-Marie Green: He didn’t like any of the houses? 

Tierrus Tucker: No.

Dedra picked up on Jocelyn’s annoyance as well. 

Dedra Peters: How come he’s not actively looking like I’m looking? How come he’s not wanting this as much as I’m wanting this? 

Jocelyn was ready to be a homeowner. After all, her career was thriving, she was expecting a baby and, in January, she had turned 30 years old. She booked a belated birthday cruise to the Bahamas to celebrate during spring break and invited her family and Cornelius. 

Dedra Peters: I think when we started to see little changes is when we were on our vacation.

Jocelyn’s mother Lacey and her aunt Dedra say Cornelius, who was usually the life of the party, seemed “different.”

Dedra Peters: He was just distant. … I mean he was not attentive to her needs. I mean she’s pregnant … she’s just looking very uncomfortable. He’s not trying to ensure that she’s eating … He’s not trying to help her walking.

Lacey Peters: Mm-hmm. 

Dedra Peters: Even to look him in his face, he looked empty … the whole time on the cruise we’re saying what in the world is going on with him? 

A week after the cruise, Jocelyn Peters was dead. Investigators knew the crime scene held some intriguing clues. In addition to the potato fragments discovered in her bedroom, authorities found a bag of potatoes on the dining room table. 

Mark Biondolino: she’s seven months pregnant. … She has a menu … you know, like a chalk menu, a weekly menu. 

Anne-Marie Green: Yeah. She was being very careful with her diet. 

Mark Biondolino: Very careful with her diet and her refrigerator, fruits, vegetables. It wasn’t junk food. It was wholesome. 

Anne-Marie Green: Yeah. 

Mark Biondolino: … all of the menus, lunch, breakfast, dinner that she had lined up, there wasn’t potato listed in there, you know, ever. So, it was just — it just was odd. 

They would soon learn that Jocelyn had planned to go to the supermarket two days before Cornelius traveled to Chicago.

Mark Biondolino: She’s telling him she’s going grocery shopping. He’s adamant — wait for me, I’ll meet you there at the grocery store.

What the interview room cameras captured 

Cornelius Green told investigators at the crime scene that he had been in Chicago when Jocelyn was murdered and that he could prove it to investigators.

Mark Biondolino: He goes, I wasn’t here. … I just came here straight from the Amtrak station. … shows him an Amtrak ticket almost immediately … 

Lead investigator Mark Biondolino. 

Mark Biondolino: And he was very oddly specific on what time he got off the Amtrak …

In fact,  security footage from the St. Louis train station shows Cornelius Green, with luggage in tow, returning on Thursday, March 24, 2016, approximately 12 hours after Jocelyn was murdered. Cornelius told authorities his train had arrived at 2:57 p.m. and he had driven to her apartment. 

Mark Biondolino: He called 911 at like 3:19 p.m.

Anne-Marie Green: He had it down to the minute when he called 911.

Mark Biondolino: To the minute, yeah … it was inherently obvious that he wanted detectives to know … I wasn’t anywhere around here when this happened.

Detectives drove him from the crime scene to headquarters to answer more questions.

Anne-Marie Green: So before you walk into that interview room with Cornelius Green, what is your plan? 

Mark Biondolino: There’s no smoking gun piece of information … We want to lay out a timeline for him. where he was at prior to discovering Ms. Peters … 

Mark Biondolino: We wanna get … into the weeds with him. 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO (police interview): … And you said you were calling her this morning.

You didn’t get in contact with her? 

CORNELIUS GREEN: The phone kept going straight to voicemail. 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: And that’s her cell phone? 

CORNELIUS GREEN: Yes, sir. 

Biondolino says Cornelius was respectful but standoffish in the interview room. And when Cornelius was questioned about his car — a 2013 white Kia Optima — he appeared agitated.

DET. MICHAEL HERZBERG: (police interview) Would you like to give us consent to look in your car so we can just rule out that there’s anything in there? Or do we need to get a search warrant? 

CORNELIUS GREEN: I just don’t understand why … 

DET. MICHAEL HERZBERG: … put yourself in our shoes, you know, I mean, if you don’t have anything to hide — 

CORNELIUS GREEN: No, I respect that but, uh, my problem is that I don’t like to be — feel like — I feel like a criminal. Like why would you get a search warrant …

Mark Biondolino: He was adamant that he didn’t want us to have anything to do with seeing whatever was in his car or having access to that car. 

Cornelius explained to investigators that he had loaned his car while he was away to a man named Phillip Cutler who had been visiting from Oklahoma.

Mark Biondolino: He identifies Phillip Cutler as an individual who came into town. First he says it’s his brother. Later identifies him … as a close childhood friend.

Cutler was originally from St. Louis. 

Mark Biondolino: There was obvious amount of trust going on between those two individuals … Cutler was … identified as the person who was transporting Mr. Green to the Amtrak station, picking him up from the Amtrak station when he arrived back in town. 

Investigators say once Cutler dropped the car off with Cornelius the two went their separate ways. Cornelius was questioned for two hours. Before he left the police station he made a call to Phillip Cutler. 

It seems Cornelius didn’t realize the camera was still rolling and the microphone was hot.

CORNELIUS GREEN (in police interview room) … I’m down at police department. … Go get my car from the address I’m bout to text you to. … I need that to happen like right now.

PHILLIP CUTLER: OK. 

CORNELIUS GREEN: Thank you.

Then Cornelius called a woman named Steffanie about his car keys. 

CORNELIUS GREEN: Hey, are you at home? 

Anne-Marie Green: And what does he say to her? 

Mark Biondolino: He indicates to her that he needs her to go meet Phil … Mr. Cutler … 

STEFFANIE: Where’s he at? 

CORNELIUS GREEN: He’s gonna meet up with you. 

Mark Biondolino: He doesn’t go into details as to why … He identifies a place where she can go to meet Phillip Cutler. … there’s a huge Amoco sign by a gas station … that’s a well-known marker.

Uniformed police officers stopped Steffanie and Phillip Cutler near the Amoco station and took them to police headquarters for questioning. As it turns out, Steffanie had known Cutler for years. He was a groomsman, in her wedding, to Cornelius Green. 

Anne-Marie Green: When did you all find out that he indeed had a wife?

Dedra Peters: Jocelyn told me.

Anne-Marie Green: Early on?

Dedra Peters: She did. But they were divorced — well, not divorced, but they were separated. And working – 

Lacey Peters: Legally separated. That’s the – 

Dedra Peters: Right.

Lacey Peters: — way it was told. 

Steffanie and Cornelius had a young daughter but had not been living together for several years. Steffanie was questioned briefly and released, but investigators wanted to know more from Phillip Cutler. Minutes before his interview started, Cutler, alone in the interview room, had done something completely bizarre.

Authorities had not witnessed Cutler’s odd behavior in real time so Biondolino and his partner, unaware of what had just happened, began questioning Cutler who claimed he’d never met Cornelius’s girlfriend Jocelyn. 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO (police interview): Do you know where his, uh, girlfriend resided? 

PHILLIP CUTLER: Uh-uh. 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: Had no idea? 

PHILLIP CUTLER: Uh-uh. 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: And you’ve never met her? Never ever been together with him or never been o — over anywhere where she lived or anything like that? 

PHILLIP CUTLER: Nope. Not never. 

Mark Biondolino: There’s a whole slew of things that we can move forward with after interviewing Phillip Cutler.

Investigators didn’t have enough evidence to arrest Cutler, he was free to leave. But before he left the interview room, Cutler gave investigators an important piece of information. 

Mark Biondolino: He gives us his phone number. 

Cutler allowed investigators to glance at some of his text messages, but he didn’t give them consent to examine his phone. Five days after Jocelyn’s murder, Cornelius went to police headquarters and gave investigators access to his phone. He also provided them with a written statement. 

Mark Biondolino: … he basically started from, he went over to Jocelyn’s house on the 20th. They went grocery shopping … and he specifically mentions that they had baked potato for dinner. … it was very vague, but it was very specific to mention potatoes … it raised the hairs on my neck when I read it. 

Investigators had learned Jocelyn and Cornelius went to an ALDI supermarket on Sunday March 20, four days before her murder. 

Mark Biondolino: And we go to that ALDI’s and we obtain the surveillance video. 

The camera had captured video of a couple with a grocery cart. Perched prominently on top of it was a big bag of potatoes. Authorities say that couple is Jocelyn and Cornelius.

Mark Biondolino: And we see Cornelius and Jocelyn pushing out a cart of groceries with 10-pound bag of russet potatoes on it … days before she’s murdered … it stands out. 

The potato shopping was curious but not strong evidence. That would come soon. Examination of the data on Green and Cutler’s phones would expose a text conversation between them almost a month before Jocelyn’s murder: 

Digital eyewitness reveals new clues 

Investigators hoped a closer look at Cornelius Green’s phone and Phillip Cutler’s phone number would provide new leads and they were not disappointed.

Mark Biondolino: We dumped the phone, for lack of a better term. 

Anne-Marie Green: And tell me what you find out? 

Mark Biondolino: There was quite a lot in Cornelius’s phone. 

An examination of Cornelius Green’s digital history had revealed a curious text message chain with Phillip Cutler: 

CORNELIUS GREEN: … When you coming here? 

PHILLIP CUTLER: When do u want me to come there? 

CORNELIUS GREEN: Spring break. March 18th-22nd

CORNELIUS GREEN: Week of March 20th 

PHILLIP CUTLER: Ok. that will work. 

PHILLIP CUTLER: u gonna b sending the package?

The conversation was cryptic but, the words spoke volumes to Biondolino. 

Mark Biondolino: … to us as investigators … we’re looking at this after the murder of Jocelyn Peters. That’s … a quid pro quo to us, an agreement that looks like has been made between Cutler and Green. 

That text was written less than a month before Jocelyn was murdered. 

Mark Biondolino: … he’s getting something from Cornelius for coming into town. 

Anne-Marie Green: You don’t know what that is? 

Mark Biondolino: We don’t — we don’t know what it is. So we look into how did he get it? … We know Cutler is in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and Green is from St. Louis. I reach out to contacts, the United States Postal Service, FedEx, UPS. You know, we had — we have contacts we can reach out to them … 

His contacts delivered. 

Mark Biondolino: Well, sure enough, UPS package was mailed from Cornelius Green … from … here in St. Louis to Phillip Cutler’s address in Muskogee, Oklahoma. 

Anne-Marie Green: What’s in the package? 

Mark Biondolino: We don’t know what’s in package … It’s an envelope. It’s … several ounces and it is $48 charged to be shipped there overnight, had to be signed for. 

Phillip Cutler had signed for the package a few weeks before Jocelyn’s murder. Authorities didn’t find Cutler’s DNA or fingerprints inside her apartment, but the circumstantial evidence against him was mounting. In June 2016, Biondolino got a warrant for Cutler’s arrest. 

Mark Biondolino: We responded to Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he was … taken into custody.

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: … you have the right to have a lawyer and have him or her with you — 

PHILLIP CUTLER: Mm-hmm. 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: — uh, while you’re being questioned. Do you understand that? 

PHILLIP CULTER: Yes. 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: Yes. 

Anne-Marie Green: Tell me about him being taken into custody and then questioned.

Mark Biondolino: Yeah … It’s laid out on the table to him … we … advised him that he is under arrest and he is going to be charged with the murder of Jocelyn Peters and her unborn child. 

Investigators confirmed the car seen on the security video around the time of Jocelyn Peters’ murder was indeed Cornelius Green’s white Kia Optima. Green, who was out of town, had loaned Cutler the car, but Cutler claimed he wasn’t driving it that night.

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: OK, nobody had access to that car, Phillip. 

PHILLIP CUTLER: Man, then somebody could’ve stole it then. 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: Nobody stole it. Hey, they stole it and then gave it back to you, put it in the same spot? 

PHILLIP CUTLER: Hey, I don’t know. 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: Is that what you’re telling me? 

PHILLIP CUTLER: Somebody could have took— 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: Hold on.

PHILLIP CUTLER: I don’t know who else was using that car. 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: Hold on a second. Hold on a second. 

PHILLIP CUTLER: I was just using the car to do what I needed to do while I was there. 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: We know you were using it to do what you needed to do. 

PHILLIP CUTLER: But that was it. 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: OK. 

PHILLIP CUTLER: I wasn’t in the car. 

DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: All right. 

After his police interview, Cutler was transported from Muskogee, Oklahoma, back to St. Louis where he was held in custody in the city jail. Investigators also secured a search warrant for Cutler’s Google account and his phone. 

Anne-Marie Green: And you get a whole lot of information from that phone? 

Mark Biondolino: Absolutely. We get a tremendous amount of … very specific location data as in relation to Phillip Cutler.  

It had provided a digital path to Jocelyn’s address on the day she was murdered.

Mark Biondolino: The Google location history showed he was actually on that street. And at some point, during that evening, between 2:59 and 3:48 a.m., there was a ping … that shows directly in that apartment. … And we believe … at that time in Jocelyn Peter’s apartment.

Anne-Marie Green: When you see his phone pinging inside her apartment, I mean as an investigator, does it get any better than that? 

Mark Biondolino: No. I think as far as with what we have here, that is … for lack of a better term, that’s our electronic eyewitness. You know, that’s it right there.

That Google location data delivered yet another clue. A few hours after the murder, Cutler’s phone was on the move. Authorities say it ended up at North Riverfront Park. It’s a stone’s throw from the banks of the Mississippi River and 10 miles from Jocelyn’s building.

Anne-Marie Green (at North Riverfront Park): What leads you down towards this way? 

Mark Biondolino: Uh, well, the reason we thought he came out here was to discard evidence from the murder … specifically we believe this is where he would have discarded this murder weapon. 

Investigators believe Phillip Cutler, who was here for approximately 8 minutes, also tossed Jocelyn’s missing cell phone in this area. 

Anne-Marie Green: So if you wanna get rid of something, this is the place to throw it.

Mark Biondolino: Oh an ideal place. A hundred percent. Yeah.

Phillip Cutler, who had been down on his luck before Jocelyn’s murder, revealed a lot more after his arrest. 

Mark Biondolino: When we interviewed Mr. Cutler …  we questioned him about a package that

Cornelius Green had sent him via the UPS … and Phillip Cutler indicated to us that he was sent $2,500 in U.S. currency from Cornelius Green. 

In early March 2016, a police report was filed by Carr Lane Middle School. There had been a theft of cash raised by students on the dance team. And according to investigators, Cornelius Green, who was the principal, had access to those funds.

Mark Biondolino: It was approximately three separate thefts that ended up totaling $2,700. 

Biondolino believed the evidence was adding up, and Cornelius Green was the common denominator. 

Mark Biondolino: We’re fairly conclusive that … this money taken from this dance team … is the same cash that was mailed to Phillip Cutler to murder Jocelyn Peters. 

Anne-Marie Green: He’s stealing from his school? 

Mark Biondolino: Yes. 

Anne-Marie Green: To give money to a hit man to kill his girlfriend? 

Mark Biondolino: Correct. 

Anne-Marie Green: $2,500?  

Mark Biondolino: $2,500, yeah. 

Anne-Marie Green: I mean, how cheap is a life? 

Mark Biondolino: It tells you what he thinks about, you know, a human life’s worth and, uh, it’s pretty disgusting. 

In August 2016, Cornelius Green was arrested for theft.

Mark Biondolino: He was visibly more upset than I think he’d been throughout this entire investigation that he was being arrested for theft.

Green posted bail and was removed from his position as school principal. Jocelyn’s former principal Nicole Conaway. 

Nicole Conaway: To hear that … somebody I knew, especially a fellow principal could take advantage of children like that, it’s disgusting. … That’s absolutely disgusting. 

Two months later, in October 2016, Cornelius Green was arrested and charged with the murders of his girlfriend Jocelyn Peters and the baby they were expecting. Shortly after that Green’s wife filed for divorce. Investigators say she was not involved in Jocelyn’s murder.

Anne-Marie Green: Do you remember your reaction when you heard he’d been arrested?  

Lacey Peters: … I was happy. … but I had said some words, I don’t think I could say on TV.

Anne-Marie Green: Mm-hmm. And how about you, Dedra?  

Dedra Peters: It was bittersweet. … Didn’t feel like it was justice only because it took so long. 

That’s because the homicide docket at the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office was backlogged and the Jocelyn Peters murder case slowed to a crawl for years. Then, in 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reviewed the evidence. 

Tiffany Becker: We looked at it because it is a classic federal case. It’s a murder-for-hire case. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Becker, now retired, prosecuted the case. 

Tiffany Becker: Here we had the interstate nexus of Phillip Cutler coming down to St. Louis to commit the murder, but not only that we had Cornelius mailing a package to Oklahoma filled with money. That was the for-hire prong of the crime.

School friends Cornelius Green and Phillip Cutler would be co-defendants in a federal courtroom, but a surprise twist two weeks before their murder trial would change the direction of this case.

A case of murder for hire

When assistant U.S. attorney Tiffany Becker was preparing for trial, she wanted the jury to hear about Cornelius Green and Jocelyn Peters’ relationship before the murder. 

Tiffany Becker: I think it had increasingly been tense between the two of them with the sore spot in the relationship being the fact that Cornelius had not gotten the divorce he had promised Jocelyn he would. … I think Jocelyn finally was realizing maybe this was never going to happen. 

Jocelyn, who was seven months pregnant, didn’t know it, but Cornelius Green had searched the internet for ways to terminate a pregnancy. 

Tiffany Becker: Through his searches … he’s looking at how to obtain … medications, how to conceal that within oatmeal or yogurt or juice, how to make your own capsules. Those searches continue and appear to be fruitless for him because Jocelyn is still pregnant.

There’s no concrete evidence Cornelius Green put those internet searches into motion but Becker believes Cornelius wanted out. 

Tiffany Becker: I believe he wanted to not be involved with Jocelyn anymore and didn’t want a financial obligation that Micah Leigh represented to him.

The investigation also revealed Green had purchased a .380 semi-automatic pistol a few years before the murder. That weapon has never been found, but it was the same caliber as the shell casing discovered in Jocelyn Peters’ bedroom. 

Nick Williams: Bill and I are federal attorneys. … in a way we act as special public defenders in the matter.

Attorneys Nick Williams and Bill Marsh would represent Cornelius Green at trial.

Anne-Marie Green: What was he like when you met him… Cornelius Green. 

Nick Williams: He’s an intelligent person … he’s got family support … he is someone who listens to what you have to say. 

Anne-Marie Green: Bill, you’re nodding along, you agree? 

Bill Marsh: Yeah, he was very respectful. /lot of times when there are, uh, you know, high stakes in a criminal case, uh, there can be friction with your client. Uh, there really wasn’t any with Cornelius.

Cornelius had maintained his innocence throughout his eight years in custody. 

Nicholas Williams: When we get involved in a case part of our job is to identify the strengths and the weaknesses of the prosecution … this is a case that involved a lot of circumstantial evidence. 

But the defense faced a big challenge. Before the U.S. Attorney’s Office decided to take the case, state prosecutors had charged both men with murder and were seeking the death penalty.

Bill Marsh: There’s a phrase in the world of capital litigation. Death is different. And when we’re advising someone, anytime it’s a capital case, it’s gonna be different advice than it might be if it were not a death penalty case.

On Feb. 28, 2024, eight years after Jocelyn Peters’ murder and two weeks before his trial, Green pleaded guilty to federal charges.

Nick Williams: He is pleading guilty to the two counts that he was charged with on the federal level. Again, conspiracy to commit murder and the murder itself. 

Anne-Marie Green: That he paid Mr. Cutler to kill his pregnant girlfriend? 

Nick Williams: That was part of the factual basis made. Yes. 

Bill Marsh: It was a difficult day, but at the end of the day, I think he knew that it was in his best interest to do that. And I think he also knew it was in the family’s best interest, both his and Jocelyn’s family.

After Green pleaded guilty, the state dismissed its murder case, along with the theft charges, but his co-defendant Phillip Cutler wanted his day in court. He faced the same federal charges.

Anne-Marie Green: You know, his defense sort of tried to argue that really Phillip Cutler was nothing more than a pawn in Cornelius Green’s elaborate chess game … that Cornelius Green is a master manipulator and he’s the victim. 

Tiffany Becker: Well, that was clearly false. … he met with Cornelius … the text messages do not lie. … Phillip’s location information and the vehicle being there at the time of the crime do not lie.

Anne-Marie Green: You don’t think he was manipulated by Cornelius into this? 

Tiffany Becker: No. I think he wanted money desperately because he was in such dire straits. And he had loyalty to his friend.

Investigator Mark Biondolino was in the courtroom. There were no cameras permitted at trial.

Anne-Marie Green: What was his demeanor like at the trial?

Mark Biondolino (laughs): It ranged from, uh, sleeping at times … he showed a lack of remorse and a — and a lack of credibility. 

Cutler took the stand in his own defense. And he told the jury what he claims was written on those notepad pages he swallowed.

Mark Biondolino:  … he said it was … a person’s name and number that he was buying weed from.  

The jury didn’t seem to buy Cutler’s testimony. Their verdict: guilty. Phillip Cutler and Cornelius Green were sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the murders of Jocelyn Peters and the baby she was expecting, Micah Leigh. Tiffany Becker says she was relieved for the Peters family.

Tiffany Becker: So happy that the closure that they deserved came to be, and so happy that Jocelyn’s death was avenged and Micah’s.  

Jocelyn’s friend Tierrus Tucker still has a lot of unanswered questions. 

Anne-Marie Green: What would you say to Cornelius if you had an opportunity to speak to him? 

Tierrus Tucker: Part of me wants to know why? Like just why? … He’s a monster. And he’s the worst kind of monster because he presents to be something else.

Jocelyn’s family will always remember her as the third grade teacher with a vibrant spirit. 

Dedra Peters: I know Jocelyn is living everlasting life … Her and Micah are growing together and they’re with other loved ones. God had a bigger plan. So maybe she was called on to teach the other angels, to educate, to inspire.

Jocelyn Peters’ students dedicated a bench at the school to honor her memory.

Produced by Marcelena Spencer. Stephen A. McCain is the development producer. Marlon Disla and Michael Baluzy are the editors. Cameron Rubner is the associate producer. David Dow and Tamara Weitzman are the development producers. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.