Ex-Principal Accused Of Hiring Hitman To Kill Pregnant Girlfriend Indicted

A former middle school principal in St. Louis, Missouri, and another man were indicted by a federal grand jury this week on charges stemming from the shooting death of a teacher and her unborn child.

The indictments of the former principal, Cornelius M. Green, and Phillip J. Cutler, of Oklahoma, were announced Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's office in St. Louis, KSDK reported.

Both men are charged with murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire in connection with the death of 30-year-old Jocelyn Peters in 2016.

Peters, a teacher at Mann Elementary in St. Louis, was seven months pregnant when she was found fatally shot in her Central West End apartment in March 2016.

Green had a longstanding and close friendship with Cutler, the indictment alleged. The former principal, who was legally married to someone else, had a romantic relationship with Peters and was the father of her unborn child, according to the documents.

Between Feb. 29, 2016, and Oct. 11, 2016, investigators believe Green, the former principal at Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School, devised a plan to murder Peters and her unborn child.

Part of that plan was that Green offered to pay Cutler $2,500 for the killing.

Cutler allegedly received the money in a UPS package in Oklahoma on March 7, 2016.

Cutler was visiting in St. Louis the week of Peters' murder and stayed at one of the former principal's homes, KMOV reported, citing court records.

At the time, Green traveled to Chicago, Illinois, allegedly to distance himself from the homicide, the documents said.

On March 24, 2016, Cutler allegedly drove Green's Kia Optima and broke into Peters' apartment. He then allegedly used a potato as a silencer to muffle the sound before shooting Peters in the head with a .380 caliber firearm while she was in her bed, court records said.

In 2017 court filings, prosecutors called the murder "outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman," Fox 2 Now reported.

"It will never be any kind of closure. It’s not one day that I don’t think about her. But I know with faith I will see her again," the victim's mother, Lacey Peters, said at the time.

Green was arrested on theft charges in August 2016 for allegedly stealing $2,700 from a student dance group at the school where he used to be a principal.

Both Green and Cutler are already charged in state court. Prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty if the men are convicted.

The two men are currently being held in jail while awaiting trial.