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Welcome to Postmortem. I'm 48 Hours correspondent Natalie Morales filling [music] in as host today to speak with
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Anne Marie Green about her report on the murder of Jocelyn Peters. So, on March 24th, 2016, Jocelyn's boyfriend,
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Cornelius Green, called the St. Louis Police Department to report that Jocelyn had been shot in her apartment. Now,
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this story features details that I have never encountered in another 48 Hours episode including a key suspect eating
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pages out of a notebook and fragments of a potato that were found at the crime scene. We're going to discuss all of
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that and more, but first, Anne Marie Green, thanks for joining us. >> And Natalie, it's always great to be
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here and you know, I always like doing Postmortem with you, so it's fantastic. >> Thank you. I love doing it with you as
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well and this one is such an intriguing case. I mean, I got to remind our viewers first though, if you haven't
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watched or listened to our 48 Hours episode, Jocelyn Peters and the notebook, just go check it out right
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now, then come back for our conversation. Jocelyn Peters was a 30-year-old beloved
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elementary school teacher. She was in a relationship with a school principal, Cornelius Green, for 5 years. In fact,
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they were expecting a child together. Jocelyn was 7 months pregnant when she was killed in her home. Well, now
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investigators did find a shell casing on the floor. No weapon was recovered. Jocelyn's phone was also missing and
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they did find something else that was really bizarre, Anne Marie. >> They did. They found potato fragments in
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the bedroom. Um, and what they really believe is that it was used as a silencer. And it's not just the potato
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fragments in the bedroom. As you saw in the hour, Jocelyn was really kind of focused on her health and she chronicled
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everything she ate throughout this pregnancy. Potatoes not on the list, but there's a big bag of potatoes in the
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house. Later on, what you find out is that Cornelius and Jocelyn went shopping shortly before she was killed, and one
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of the things they bought was potatoes. And the reason that it's kind of so important is it gives you an indication
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of the level of pre-planning for this, right? She just didn't just happen to have potatoes. This There was something
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very, very deliberate about purchasing those potatoes that day. >> And and potatoes as a silencer, I mean,
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I had never even heard of that before. Where did that idea even come from? >> I mean, when I first heard of it, it
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reminded me of some like 1940s like talkie gangster movie or talkie Did they call them talkies? Yeah. You know what I
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mean? But it probably worked because no one in the apartment heard the gunshot, right? Um but also, it's actually, you
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know, come up in movies and television before. In fact, they mentioned one particular movie during the trial, uh
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the uh 1992 film South Central. They use a silencer a potato as a silencer. >> And I know the lead detective on the
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case actually did a demo for you. I mean, this had to be extremely dangerous, by the way, right?
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>> I did not appreciate how dangerous it was until he sort of showed me how it would work. Cuz I think in my mind, I
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just thought, "Oh, you just stick the potato on the end." Right? But you can't. Or right, you'd have a gun sort
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of full of potato. So, you have to kind of hold it. So, you can imagine, Natalie, you're holding this gun, and at
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the end of the gun, where the bullet is coming out, you're holding a potato. If you move your hand in any direction by
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mistake, you're going to shoot your hand off. It's extremely dangerous. >> Does not sound like a good idea at all.
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Well, police quickly zeroed in on Jocelyn's boyfriend at the time, Cornelius Green. After surveillance
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cameras picked up uh of a white sedan that appeared to look like the car that he drove. That was a
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Kia Optima. That was around 3:00 a.m. that the surveillance cameras picked up that image. Turns out though, Cornelius
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had an alibi. He was in Chicago at the time that Jocelyn was murdered. But we learn that he had loaned his car to his
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friend named Philip Cutler. >> Now, before I get into, you know, how we find out about that, I should talk about
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his trip to Chicago. Um he visited friends of his, a couple. Um 48 Hours did reach out to them. They were not
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interested in participating in this process, according to the prosecution. He was there for a couple days and they
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did think it was sort of a little odd and that his behavior was a little odd during that time. Um you know, it's a
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quick turnaround. He comes right back. But how we learn that he's lent his car is because while he's sitting in the
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interrogation room in the police station, he makes a phone call. And uh he [clears throat] calls Cutler and asks
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Cutler to pick up the car. And the cameras are rolling and we have all this video.
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>> Video and audio. So I guess uh he just forgot that in those interrogation rooms, the cameras are always rolling.
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>> Yeah. >> So he also called his wife and I yes, we're talking about his wife because he
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was still married at the time, his wife Stephanie, and and talked about his car keys and asked her to then meet Cutler.
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Now, police bring Cutler in. That's when we see another bizarre thing happen on camera.
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>> Yeah. He was caught on camera eating pages from his notebook. Hm. So from what I gather, you know, Philip
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Cutler is brought to this room, but he's not told what why he's there. An officer
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at one point comes to the door, opens the door, and and that's when Philip Cutler says, "Do you know how long how
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long I'm going to be here?" And the officer says, "Well, it's a homicide investigation, so, you know,
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I'm paraphrasing, these things take time." It is after that that he starts flipping through his
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notebook and stuffs these pieces in his mouth. >> And I guess investigators at the time
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did not see that that video in real time as we saw it as the viewers. >> right. You know, these I guess I didn't
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really kind of realize this, but I guess once you're in this room, the cameras are rolling, there's audio, there's
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sound, but you know, the officers are the investigators are, you know, getting their questions together, getting their
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paperwork work together. They're not watching the entire time. And so, when they go back into the room, they didn't
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know to ask him about these papers until much later. >> What did they think when they saw that?
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>> Just like the rest of us, they wanted to know what was on, you know, those papers. You know, later on, Cutler
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argued that what was on those papers it was like the phone number to like a guy that he bought marijuana from. Um but
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what what we do know is once he realized it was a homicide investigation, he felt
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the need to get rid of those pages. >> Well, uh Cutler also claimed he did not know
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Jocelyn Peters, but he did provide police with a key piece of information that would become crucial, and that was
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his phone number. >> Yeah, exactly. And then later on, uh Cornelius gives them access to his
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actual phone. And so, then what you see as they go through the phone and then they have the phone
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number is a really important series of text messages um between the two, right? And I'm just going to read out what's
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said. Green asks Cutler, "When are you coming here?" Cutler says, "When do you want me
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to come there?" "Spring break, March 18th to the 22nd." Uh "The week of March 20th" is what
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Green says. Cutler says, "Okay, that will work. You got to remember like you know Cutler lives in Oklahoma. These
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guys are friends from when they were little kids, but they're not hanging out together on a regular basis. Cutler then
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says, "You going to be sending the package." Now investigators are like, "What package? What What are they
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looking for?" Um and they look at every possible way that a package could be sent from St. Louis to Oklahoma and go
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through all the list. Could it be UPS? Could it be the postal service until they find a package that was delivered
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to Cutler. Of course, they don't know what's in it, but they know it's got the dimensions of maybe a letter or
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something a little heavier. >> Well, it turns out that package contained about $2,500 and Cutler had
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signed for it. Cutler's phone location by the way was also placed at the scene of the crime and that's when after all
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of that is put together, he is then arrested. >> Right. >> Well, let's talk about Cornelius Green.
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Now Jocelyn's friend called him in the hour a monster and he's the worst kind of monster because he presents to be
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something else. I mean that really struck me hearing that language because on paper he's a school principal. He
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seems to have everything going for him, but we learn everything else around him is just all a facade, right Amarie?
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>> The best word Natalie. I literally was about to say facade. It's It's all image, no substance. I mean I think he
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was a good principal. People seem to like him as a principal. The prosecutor described him as an enigma because he
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has no criminal record. There isn't sort of a history of violence or any of that.
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Um and yes, we learned that he was married. He also had a daughter, too. >> Do we know if his his wife was aware at
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all about Jocelyn and vice and vice versa? >> He didn't had not been living with his
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wife and child for several years. According to Jocelyn's family, he told Jocelyn that they were legally
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separated. His wife now now ex-wife could file for divorce later. So Stephanie knew about Jocelyn but
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thought that they had broken up. Um but but here's the thing. There were so many other women.
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I want to share a little clip from the prosecutor Tiffany Becker about what she has to say about all of this.
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>> We know that he was involved sexually not only with his ex-wife off and on, obviously Jocelyn, but then he had a
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relationship with another woman. She would believe that she was going to marry him and that they were going to
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get a house and build a family together. And there were multiple other individuals we identified during the
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examination of his text messages that showed he was juggling all of these relationships at that time.
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>> Mhm. Somehow he was successful with the ladies. He absolutely was really good at
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showing different people I guess a different face. >> Yeah and and just to think about
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Jocelyn. I mean she's 7 months pregnant thinking that eventually she might marry
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the guy that all she wants is to set up a house with him and to you know really just have a solid relationship and start
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for her baby girl. >> I should say Natalie one of the things that Jocelyn's family said to us is that
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they felt that he was successful at juggling all these women because he deliberately chose women who were career
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oriented. >> Mhm. >> And they would be too busy to be going through his text messages, asking them
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who's this girl? That they were just like really focused driven women. So they they were not going to be checking
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up on him to see what he was up to. And so he got away with a lot. Welcome back. All right, well, let's
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talk about how Cornelius Green allegedly stole $2,700 from his own school's dance team. That
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shows you the kind of desperation and the level of, you know, depravity that he was he was capable of.
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>> Yeah, I mean, he didn't have the money to send to Philip Cutler. So, you know,
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the allegation is that he stole it from his own school. Nicole Calloway, the principal of at Jocelyn's school, said
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he literally stole from children to pay for killing his own child. So, the way he was caught is the they
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were kind of holding this money in a box in a room, basically. Um like a a big closet or whatever. Not that it wasn't
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in a bank account. According to police reports, someone saw him go in. And he was just one of, you know, a couple of
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people who went into the room. Um but when the police were called to do the investigation, you know, they're
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questioning the teacher who is saying, "I don't know if this money's gone." He's right there.
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That's her boss. You know, it's very difficult for her to say, "Well, the only other person that went into the
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room was this this guy, my boss." So, this is very kind of uncomfortable situation, but eventually, you know, he
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is identified as the person who stole the money. I should say he was arrested, but those charges were later dismissed
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after Cornelius pleaded guilty to the federal charges, right? First, she was charged at the state level, but then
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everything moved over to the federal court. So, then those theft charges were dismissed.
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>> And I and I just keep going back to $2,500. I mean, that was how he how much he valued Jocelyn's
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life. It's just horrendous. >> I absolutely. Um and not just her life, but, you know,
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you have a child that's coming. And uh the lead detective, Mark Biandolino, I talked to him about it. He thought it
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was absolutely disgusting and that guy, you know, he spent a career doing homicide in St. Louis. So, he's seen a
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lot of things. Violino actually said that he seemed like more upset about being charged with a theft than what
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ended up happening 2 months later, which was him being charged with murder. >> Mhm.
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And and going back to, I mean, what what was the motive in all of this? >> Well, you know, prosecutors and
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investigators think that the motive was the pregnancy. Um he already had a child
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with his wife. He did not want to have another child. He just didn't want the financial responsibility. And you can
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see that almost, you know, from the beginning of the pregnancy with Jocelyn, he starts to Google searches to figure
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out ways to terminate this pregnancy. This is heartbreaking in so many different ways,
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but when you talk to Jocelyn's friends and family, she would have been fine. Um she loved children. She had a good
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job. You know, if he wanted to be an idiot about this, she would have gone on with her life. Um
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So, so that's yeah, it's terrible. >> And and what was the nature of Jocelyn and Cornelius's relationship then at the
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time of the murder because we hear they go on this cruise together and it seems like things are okay.
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>> I think like the only red flag before that cruise that her friends and family
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talked about, we mention it in the hour, is she was like ready to build, right? So, she's like time, you know, get out
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of this apartment, let's move into a house. And he was all enthusiastic about searching for houses, but then he always
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found like a reason why this house just wasn't perfect. And it was starting to feel deliberate. Not that he was picky,
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not that he wanted nothing but the best, but it just started to feel like he really was using it as a a stall tactic.
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But on the cruise, Jocelyn's aunt says he looked distracted. And by then, I mean, based on the text messages,
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he's already planned this whole thing out, right? Jocelyn is not going to see another birthday.
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>> Mhm. Just horrific, you know, just thinking if she had possibly moved out just a little bit earlier, cuz I know
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she was making plans to do that. >> Yes, she comes from an amazing family. They are so supportive of each other.
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And her mom, Lacey, had Jocelyn's old bedroom already. She saved money, she improved the bathroom in the house. Like
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the plan was, Jocelyn, you come move in and then you will be surrounded by a village. And this child with will have
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all the love and support that they need. >> Well, unfortunately, you know, we find
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out a week later she ends up dead. So, Color was arrested and charged with Jocelyn's murder in June of 2016, and
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then Green was arrested and charged with Jocelyn's murder in October of 2016. Both men were held in the city jail for
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6 years. While they were waiting there, then they were finally indicted on federal charges in 2022. And Marie, why
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did it take so long? >> I know, Natalie, we've done cases that drag on and on and on. Often, it's
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because the defendant is working the system. They fire their lawyers, they you know, something along those lines.
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In this case, it's just because St. Louis has such a tremendous backlog, which is
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like just bonkers to me. And eventually what ends up happening is federal prosecutors take a look at the case. And
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because, you know, it crosses state lines, it actually works really well as a federal case. And the thinking is that
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it'll be processed, it'll get to to trial much faster. It still takes, you know, a couple more years, but it it
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does get to trial faster. But Green though ended up taking a plea deal. He does. He waits until the very, very end,
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like right before he's going to go to trial. But the state charges came with the death penalty. And so he ultimately
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decides that he's going to take a deal with the federal case. The state charges are dropped including that theft charge
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and he agrees to certain facts in the case like you always do when there's a plea, right? But his co-defendant Cutler
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does not. He wants to go to trial. But I got to tell you he did himself no favors. Several people
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told us that he was literally sleeping in court. And when I asked, are you sure he wasn't just resting his eyes,
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blinking for a very long time? He Nally, he was snoring. So they knew he was sleeping. So I'm
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sure that didn't help at all. >> You can imagine what the jury thinks about that especially when you consider
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that, you know, here he is charged with killing a pregnant woman 7 months pregnant at the time as well.
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>> Right. So Cutler is found guilty. Philip Cutler and Cornelius Green they're both
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sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the murders of Jocelyn Peters and for the murders of Michael Lee her baby.
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And Cutler's appeals so far have been denied. >> And how did Jocelyn's family react to
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that verdict? >> So certainly there was relief but without Cornelius going to trial it
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leaves sort of a ton of unanswered questions. We're We're just guessing as to why he did this, why he took this
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most extreme route to solve what he thought was a was a problem. But the ripple effects continue today.
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Jocelyn's aunt learned of her murder while she was driving on the highway. To this day she cannot drive on the
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highway. And Jocelyn's former principal Nicole Conaway could not go back into the classroom after this. And now she
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actually works as a consultant. So she's still in education but you know, looking
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at the faces in those classrooms reminded her too much of Jocelyn. >> And you got to, you know, consider how
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her mom was handling all of this as well. >> Yeah, she, um, you know, she's had some hard knocks in
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life in general. Um, and she said something beautiful that Jocelyn will leave behind, kind of
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an educational legacy, and I want I want to play a clip. >> She was a type of um
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teacher that always came very early because she had to greet each and every student
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every day. Education was just so important to her and the kids learning. She used to always say, "The first time
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you travel throughout the world is reading a book." She was the presence in the room without saying one word.
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She was that person. She was that person. >> So, you know, the St. Louis school district
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is deals with a lot of challenges in the classroom, and the kids have challenges
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outside the classroom that they bring into the classroom. It really takes a special person to take
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on this vocation. My mom is a retired school teacher. I'm just going to say that she was an excellent teacher, and
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what I learned watching her was teaching is not something you do. It's who you are. And this was Jocelyn.
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>> And you can only imagine, you know, the ripple effect on the kids as well, you
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know, we can all remember, certainly, that one teacher that had that impact on our lives. I imagine Jocelyn Peters was
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that teacher to the kids that she taught, that she left a mark on them. >> I absolutely believe that, and it's a
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pity. I would have loved to have seen um, the impact that she would have had on that city if she was allowed to to
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live the life that she hoped and dreamed for. >> Well, Anne Marie, thank you once again
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for another great episode of 48 Hours. Thank you, Natalie. [music] >> And thanks to all the teachers out
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there. >> If you like this episode, please rate and review on Apple Podcasts [music] or
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Spotify.