00:00:00
♪♪ [ Line beeps ] -This victim resided at an
apartment inside the building. Uniformed officers
had already been there.
00:00:35
The first thing we do
is we're going to go in and we're going to see
where our victim is.
00:00:40
My name is Mark Biondolino. I'm a retired homicide detective
from the city of St. Louis,
00:00:45
and I investigated
the murder of Jocelyn Peters from March 24, 2016. -This isn't someone who would
accidentally leave a door open.
00:00:54
She was responsible. One of the most responsible
people I knew. It just didn't make sense.
00:01:02
-She was a strong force,
fierce advocate for children, loved them dearly, and everyone was going
to succeed in her classroom.
00:01:09
She always wanted to do
the next best thing. In her free time,
she was always checking out
00:01:15
what she could do differently
to meet the kids' needs, what programs there were
out there.
00:01:20
-There are only three to four
full-time arts teachers at the middle-school level.
00:01:25
-She'd bust into my office. "Hey, I need you to come
to my classroom today. I've got some magic going on,
00:01:30
and you need to
come and see it." The kids were learning, and she
cared about each one of them.
00:01:35
And whatever they needed,
she gave that to them. -First person
that we're going to speak to
00:01:39
is the person
that discovered her. -And this is Cornelius Green.
-Correct. -She truly, truly fell in love
with him, honestly.
00:01:48
And we all did. He was a principal. He was kind.
He was generous. I mean, he was very attentive
to her needs.
00:01:58
-He voluntarily goes down
to the police headquarters. -He identified
Philip Cutler, his brother,
00:02:24
was the person
who was transporting Mr. Green to the Amtrak station, picking him up
when he arrived back in town.
00:02:34
Other investigators
from the homicide unit were able to go out
and pick up Mr. Cutler
00:02:40
to conduct an interview. Detective Hertzberg advised him
we're going to speak to you
00:02:45
regarding this homicide
that occurred today. After hearing the word homicide,
he stands up,
00:02:51
he lets out a big sigh, and then
he reaches into his back pocket and retrieves a notebook.
00:02:59
He thumbs through several pages,
tears out a piece of paper, and then he immediately puts it
into his mouth
00:03:08
and begins chewing it. Whatever was on
those two sheets of paper he immediately wanted to
get rid of.
00:03:18
-There's another sort of
loose end in this case, too. -Yes, we identified immediately
organic material
00:03:25
splattered about in the
headboard and around her pillow and then along the floor.
00:03:31
-What did that turn out to be? -We identified that as being
fragments from a potato.
00:03:37
Like you'd think,
like a baked potato. -This case is baffling. My name is Tiffany Becker.
00:03:45
I'm a retired Assistant
United States Attorney for the Eastern District
of Missouri.
00:03:50
I couldn't believe the depravity
of the crime itself. -Had you ever been involved
in a case like this before?
00:04:00
-Nothing like this. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Lead homicide detective
Mark Biondolino began the investigation
into Jocelyn Peters' murder
00:05:00
on March 24, 2016. Since then, he has remained
connected to the case, even though he's now retired
from the St. Louis, Missouri,
00:05:09
Police Department. -I think you have
a responsibility to do that. -You wanted to see it
to the end.
00:05:16
-You got to see it to the end. If you're working in homicide, you're not just going to let it
fall by the wayside.
00:05:23
-We took a drive to the city's
Central West End neighborhood. Nestled among
the historic homes
00:05:30
is Jocelyn Peters'
apartment building. Her apartment is right up there. -Yeah, it's the second-floor
balcony you see
00:05:37
that's directly in front of us. -Is it easy
to access that apartment? -From the outside?
Absolutely not.
00:05:43
I mean, it's a tremendous
distance from the ground up to that balcony. -Jocelyn Peters lived
in apartment 201.
00:05:51
The 30-year-old third-grade
teacher had been murdered in the middle of the night while
she was sleeping in her bed.
00:05:58
Authorities believe
she was killed between 3:00 AM and 3:40 AM. How do you get
inside the building?
00:06:07
-So this is the front
foyer entryway to the apartment complex. You'd have to use your key to
get in through that front foyer
00:06:15
and then go up the stairs
directly at the top of the banister
of the staircase. -Jocelyn's boyfriend,
00:06:21
Cornelius Greene, had been
in Chicago for three days. When he returned to St. Louis
on Thursday, March 24th,
00:06:29
he told investigators he drove
his car, a white Kia Optima, straight to her place.
00:06:35
Jocelyn's mother, Lacy Peters, says she received an alarming
call from Cornelius soon after.
00:06:42
-When he called me, he told me
that he went to go check on her and she was on the floor.
00:06:48
-Deirdre Peters,
Jocelyn's aunt, says she had heard something was
wrong with her niece.
00:06:55
She immediately began
driving towards her apartment, but before
she could get there...
00:07:01
-Lacy had called and she said,
"Deirdre, pull over." And I don't remember anything
that happened at that point
00:07:08
because I lost it. -Police had given Lacy news
no mother wants to hear. Jocelyn, her eldest daughter,
was dead.
00:07:19
-I just remember just crying and just screaming,
just couldn't be true. -Authorities say there were
no signs of forced entry
00:07:28
at Jocelyn's apartment. The wood door
at the main entrance appeared secure and sturdy.
00:07:34
-The landlord was
hyper secure over who had keys and what type of keys are
used to get into that building.
00:07:42
The keys were non-duplicatable. They're unable to be duplicated. If you took it to a locksmith,
00:07:47
they're not allowed
to make a copy for you or they could lose
their certification.
00:07:52
-It was no surprise
to investigators that Cornelius had keys
to Jocelyn's place.
00:07:58
While they didn't live together, they had been in an intimate
relationship for five years.
00:08:03
Jocelyn was
seven months pregnant, and Cornelius was the father. -Jocelyn felt that
he'd make a wonderful father.
00:08:12
-In Jocelyn's home, investigators discovered
a guest list, as well as invitations inspired
by "Alice in Wonderland"
00:08:20
for her upcoming baby shower. Biondolino and his team
had a lot of questions about the crime scene.
00:08:27
-Had the apartment
been ransacked? Had it looked like
there had been a struggle?
00:08:31
-Do you see any of that? -Absolutely not. It didn't even remotely look
disturbed.
00:08:36
-Jocelyn's cellphone
was missing. A single shell casing from
a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol
00:08:43
was discovered on the floor
near the nightstand. -From my investigative
standpoint,
00:08:48
we saw that she was laying
on her side, head facing the headboard. She had an apparent wound
to her eye.
00:08:55
-And there was something investigators
had never seen before -- potato fragments
splattered in the bedroom.
00:09:03
-Splattered about
on the headboard, pieces of it on the victim, around her head,
and around her pillow
00:09:10
and around behind
where her head was. -They soon had a theory. -We believe
the potato was used
00:09:17
as a makeshift suppression,
silencer, to silence the sound
of the firearm being fired.
00:09:27
-Biondolino showed us how authorities believe
the killer used it. -I would imagine that the
shooter would have the gun --
00:09:35
I'm right handed, so he'd be holding the gun
in his right hand, and he'd have to put that potato
out over the barrel of the gun.
00:09:42
-What's the risk? How dangerous is that? -I think -- I'm no gun expert
by any means,
00:09:47
but I think
that it falls in that category of extremely dangerous
and extremely risky.
00:09:53
-Can a potato work
as a silencer? -I believe it did
in this scenario. And I say that because
when we did our canvass,
00:10:00
when we, you know, looked for
calls for service in the area around the time of this murder,
00:10:05
nobody ever indicated
or made a call that they'd heard a gunshot. -Whoever killed Jocelyn Peters
00:10:11
may have silenced the gunshot
in her apartment. But outside,
surveillance cameras
00:10:16
on the street were recording. Shortly after 3:00 AM
on the day of the murder, one of the cameras captured
an image of a white sedan.
00:10:26
The vehicle was eerily similar
to Cornelius Green's car, a white Kia Optima. ♪♪ ♪♪
00:10:50
-When Jocelyn Peters graduated
from college, she knew she wanted to be
a teacher.
00:10:56
-We were going to
be both teaching third grade, and so there were things
that we had to figure out.
00:11:02
-Tierrus Tucker
first met Jocelyn when they started teaching
at Mann Elementary.
00:11:07
Why do you think teaching was
so important to her? -Jocelyn I think
that she felt a sense of urgency
00:11:13
to make sure that
she was giving back to students. -Jocelyn knew
a quality education would be
00:11:21
a game changer for kids, and she wasn't afraid
to tackle thorny issues facing St. Louis
public schools.
00:11:29
-80% of elementary schools
do not employ full-time art, music,
or physical education teachers.
00:11:37
-She was always checking out
what she could do differently to meet
the kids' needs.
00:11:42
-Nicole Conaway, the former principal
at Mann Elementary School, had met Cornelius Green,
a middle-school principal,
00:11:49
at a work retreat. She had been looking
to hire a third-grade teacher, and Cornelius recommended
Jocelyn.
00:11:57
-He called me and said,
"I have a candidate for you. She's great." -At the time,
she had no idea
00:12:03
Cornelius was
in a relationship with Jocelyn. -I brought her in
and interviewed her,
00:12:08
and about 15, 20 minutes in,
I said, "Could you please
step in the hallway while we talk about you?"
00:12:15
So I brought her back in,
and I offered her the job in that moment.
-15 minutes in?
00:12:20
-She was a bright light. She always has been. She talked about
how she wanted to be invested
00:12:26
and care for children,
and she wanted to teach them. -In 2014,
Jocelyn Peters received one
00:12:33
of the most prestigious honors
for educators in St. Louis. -She was awarded
the Pettus Excellence Award
00:12:40
for the district. -What is that recognizing? -It's recognizing
excellence in the classroom.
00:12:46
We were very proud of her. -By the spring of 2016, she was also fulfilling
some personal dreams.
00:12:55
She surprised her mother, Lacy,
with the news. -Jocelyn was expecting
a baby girl
00:13:04
and had named her Micah Leigh. -We were all very excited
for her. -And the father-to-be,
Cornelius Green,
00:13:11
appeared to be
a good match for Jocelyn. Cornelius was in a fraternity, and she was active
in her sorority.
00:13:18
And like Jocelyn, he was
an award-winning educator. According to her family, he
seemed smitten from the start.
00:13:28
-He actively pursued her. He started giving
her flowers and gifts and was very persistent.
00:13:34
-Jocelyn's friend Tierrus
also noticed how attentive he was. -Jocelyn and I,
we ran a 5K a couple of times,
00:13:42
and he was at the 5K, so he seemed really supportive
in that way. -How did she talk about
the relationship?
00:13:54
What were her hopes
and dreams for it? -I know that Jocelyn
wanted to be married
00:13:59
and that she wanted a family, and I recall her and him, like,
going to go look at houses.
00:14:06
-But Jocelyn, she says, had grown frustrated with
Cornelius during the process. He didn't like
any of the houses.
00:14:14
-No. -Deirdre picked up on
Jocelyn's annoyance as well. -"How come he's not actively
looking like I'm looking?
00:14:22
How come he's not wanting this
as much as I'm wanting this?" -Jocelyn was ready
to be a homeowner.
00:14:29
After all,
her career was thriving, she was expecting a baby,
and in January, she had turned 30 years old.
00:14:37
She booked a belated
birthday cruise to the Bahamas to celebrate during spring break
00:14:42
and invited her family
and Cornelius. -I think when we started
to see little changes
00:14:50
is when we were on our vacation. -Jocelyn's mother, Lacy, and
her aunt Deirdre say Cornelius,
00:14:56
who was usually the life
of the party, seemed different. -He was just distant. I mean, he was
not attentive to her needs.
00:15:05
I mean, she's pregnant. She's just looking
very uncomfortable. He's not trying to ensure
that she's eating.
00:15:13
He's not trying
to help her walking. Even to look him in his face,
he looked empty.
00:15:21
The whole time on the cruise, we're saying, "What in the
world is going on with him?"
00:15:27
-A week after the cruise,
Jocelyn Peters was dead. Investigators knew
the crime scene held
00:15:37
some intriguing clues. In addition to
the potato fragments discovered in her bedroom,
00:15:43
authorities found a bag
of potatoes on the dining room table. -She's seven months pregnant.
00:15:49
She has a menu, you know, like
a chalk menu, a weekly menu. -Yeah. She was being
very careful with her diet.
00:15:55
-Very careful with her diet. In her refrigerator --
fruits, vegetables. It wasn't junk food.
00:16:01
It was wholesome.
-Yeah. -All of the menus,
lunch, breakfast, dinner that she had lined up,
00:16:07
there wasn't a potato
listed in there, you know, ever. So it was just --
It just was odd.
00:16:15
-They would soon learn that Jocelyn had planned
to go to the supermarket two days before
Cornelius traveled to Chicago.
00:16:23
-She's telling him
she's going grocery shopping. He's adamant, "Wait for me. I'll meet you there
at the grocery store."
00:16:29
♪♪ ♪♪ -Cornelius Green told
investigators at the crime scene that he had been in Chicago
when Jocelyn was murdered
00:16:53
and that he could prove it
to investigators. -He goes, "I wasn't here. I just came here straight
from the Amtrak station."
00:17:00
Shows him an Amtrak ticket
almost immediately. -Lead investigator
Mark Biondolino.
00:17:06
-And he was very oddly specific on what time he got off
the Amtrak. -In fact,
this security footage
00:17:14
from the St Louis train station shows Cornelius Green
with luggage in tow, returning on Thursday,
March 24, 2016,
00:17:23
approximately 12 hours
after Jocelyn was murdered. Cornelius told authorities his
train had arrived at 2:57 PM
00:17:32
and he had driven
to her apartment. -He called 911 at like 3:19 PM. -He had it down to the minute
when he called 911?
00:17:40
-To the minute, yeah.
It was inherently obvious that he wanted detectives
to know "I wasn't anywhere
00:17:45
around here when this happened." -Detectives drove him
from the crime scene to headquarters
to answer more questions.
00:17:55
So before you walk
into that interview room with Cornelius Green,
what is your plan?
00:18:02
-There's no smoking gun
piece of information. We want to lay out
a timeline for him.
00:18:11
Where he was at prior
to discovering Miss Peters. We want to get into the weeds
with him.
00:18:27
-Biondolino says
Cornelius was respectful but standoffish
in the interview room.
00:18:33
And when Cornelius
was questioned about his car, a 2013 white Kia Optima,
he appeared agitated.
00:18:59
-He was adamant that he
didn't want us to have anything to do with seeing
whatever was in his car
00:19:05
or having access to that car. -Cornelius explained
to investigators that he had loaned his car
00:19:11
while he was away
to a man named Philip Cutler, who had been visiting
from Oklahoma.
00:19:17
-He identifies Philip Cutler
as an individual who came into town. First he says it's his brother,
00:19:23
later identifies him
as a close childhood friend. -Cutler was originally
from St. Louis.
00:19:30
-There was an obvious amount
of trust going on between
those two individuals. Cutler was identified
as the person
00:19:37
who was transporting Mr. Green
to the Amtrak station, picking him up
from the Amtrak station
00:19:42
when he arrived back in town. -Investigators say
once Cutler dropped the car off with Cornelius, the two
went their separate ways.
00:19:50
Cornelius was questioned
for two hours. Before he left
the police station, he made a call to Philip Cutler.
00:19:59
It seems Cornelius
didn't realize the camera was still rolling
and the microphone was hot.
00:20:15
Then Cornelius called
a woman named Stephanie about his car keys. And what does he say to her?
00:20:24
-He indicates to her that
he needs her to go meet Phil. Mr. Cutler. He doesn't go into details
as to why he identifies a place
00:20:35
where she can go to meet
Philip Cutler. There's a huge Amoco sign
by a gas station
00:20:40
that's a well-known marker. -Uniformed police officers
stopped Stephanie and Philip Cutler
near the Amoco station
00:20:49
and took them to police
headquarters for questioning. As it turns out, Stephanie
had known Cutler for years.
00:20:57
He was a groomsman
in her wedding to Cornelius Green. When did you all find out
that he indeed had a wife?
00:21:08
-Jocelyn told me.
-Early on? -She did,
but they were divorced. Well, not divorced,
but they were separated.
00:21:15
-Legally separated.
That's what I was told. -Stephanie and Cornelius
had a young daughter
00:21:20
but had not been living together
for several years. Stephanie was questioned briefly
and released,
00:21:26
but investigators wanted to know
more from Philip Cutler. Minutes before his interview
started,
00:21:33
Cutler, alone
in the interview room, had done something
completely bizarre. Authorities had not
witnessed Cutler's
00:21:45
odd behavior in real time. So Biondolino and his partner, unaware of what
had just happened,
00:21:52
began questioning Cutler, who claimed he'd never met
Cornelius's girlfriend, Jocelyn.
00:22:16
-There's a whole slew
of things that we can move forward with after interviewing
Phillip Cutler.
00:22:22
-Investigators
didn't have enough evidence to arrest Cutler. He was free to leave,
00:22:27
but before he left
the interview room, Cutler gave investigators an
important piece of information.
00:22:34
-He gives us his phone number. -Cutler allowed investigators
to glance at some of his text messages,
00:22:43
but he didn't give them consent
to examine his phone. Five days after
Jocelyn's murder,
00:22:50
Cornelius went to
police headquarters and gave investigators
access to his phone.
00:22:56
He also provided them
with a written statement. -He basically started
from he went over
00:23:04
to Johnson's house on the 20th. They went grocery shopping. And he specifically mentions
00:23:12
that they had baked potato
for dinner. It was very vague, but it was very specific
to mention potatoes.
00:23:23
It raised the hairs on my neck
when I read it. -Investigators had learned
Jocelyn and Cornelius
00:23:30
went to an Aldi supermarket
on Sunday, March 20th, four days before her murder. -And we go to that Aldi's
00:23:39
and we obtain
the surveillance video. -The camera had captured video
of a couple with a grocery cart.
00:23:46
Perched prominently on top of it
was a big bag of potatoes. Authorities say that couple
is Jocelyn and Cornelius.
00:23:56
-And we see Cornelius
and Jocelyn pushing out a cart of groceries with a 10-pound bag
of russet potatoes on it
00:24:03
days before she's murdered. It stands out. -The potato shopping was
curious, but not strong evidence.
00:24:11
That would come soon. Examination of the data on Green
and Cutler's phones would expose a text conversation
between them
00:24:20
almost a month before
Jocelyn's murder. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Investigators hoped a
closer look at Cornelius Green's
00:24:53
phone and Philip Cutler's phone
number would provide new leads. And they were not disappointed.
00:25:01
-We dumped the phone,
for lack of a better term. -And tell me what you find out.
00:25:05
-There was quite a lot
in Cornelius phone. -An examination of Cornelius
Green's digital history
00:25:12
had revealed a curious
text message chain with Philip Cutler. The conversation was cryptic,
00:25:33
but the words spoke volumes
to Biondolino. -To us as investigators, we're looking at this after
the murder of Jocelyn Peters.
00:25:40
That's a quid pro quo to us. An agreement
that looks like has been made between Cutler and Greene.
00:25:47
-That text was written
less than a month before Jocelyn was murdered. -He's getting something from
Cornelius for coming into town.
00:25:58
-You don't know what that is.
-We don't know what it is. So we look into
how did he get it?
00:26:03
We know Cutler is in Muskogee,
Oklahoma, and Green is from St. Louis. I reach out to contacts -- the
United States Postal Service,
00:26:11
Fedex, UPS. You know, we have contacts.
We can reach out to them. -His contacts delivered.
-Well, sure enough,
00:26:19
a UPS package was mailed
from Cornelius Green from here in St. Louis to Philip Cutler's address
in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
00:26:27
-What's in the package? -We don't know
what's in the package. It's an envelope,
it's several ounces,
00:26:33
and it is $48 charged
to be shipped there overnight and had to be signed for. -Philip Cutler had signed
for the package
00:26:42
a few weeks before
Jocelyn's murder. Authorities didn't find
Cutler's DNA or fingerprints
00:26:48
inside her apartment, but the circumstantial evidence
against him was mounting. In June 2016, Biondolino got
a warrant for Cutler's arrest.
00:27:00
-We responded to Muskogee,
Oklahoma, where he was taken into custody. -Tell me about him
being taken into custody
00:27:14
and then questioned. -Yeah, it's laid out
on the table to him. We advised him
that he's under arrest,
00:27:21
and he is going to be charged
with the murder of Jocelyn Peters
and her unborn child.
00:27:25
-Investigators confirmed the car
seen on the security video around the time
of Jocelyn Peters' murder
00:27:32
was indeed Cornelius Green's
white Kia Optima. Green, who was out of town,
had loaned Cutler the car,
00:27:41
but Cutler claimed
he wasn't driving it that night. After his police interview, Cutler was transported
from Muskogee, Oklahoma,
00:28:07
back to St. Louis, where he was held in custody
in the city jail. Investigators also secured
a search warrant for Cutler's
00:28:15
Google account and his phone. And you get a whole lot
of information from that phone.
00:28:21
-Absolutely. We get a tremendous amount
of very specific location data, as in relation to Philip Cutler.
00:28:30
-It had provided a digital path
to Jocelyn's address on the day she was murdered.
00:28:36
-The Google location history
showed he was actually on that street. And at some point
during that evening,
00:28:43
between 2:59 and 3:48 AM, there was a ping that shows
directly in that apartment.
00:28:49
And we believe at that time
in Jocelyn Peters' apartment. -When you see his phone
pinging inside her apartment,
00:29:01
I mean, as an investigator, does
it get any better than that? -No. I think as far as
with what we have here,
00:29:09
that is,
for lack of a better term, that's our electronic
eyewitness. That's it right there.
00:29:15
-That Google location data
delivered yet another clue. A few hours after the murder,
00:29:21
Cutler's phone was on the move. Authorities say it ended up here
at North Riverfront Park.
00:29:27
It's a stone's throw from the
banks of the Mississippi River and 10 miles from
Jocelyn's building.
00:29:33
What leads you down
towards this way? -Well, the reason
we thought he came out here
00:29:39
was to discard evidence
from the murder. Specifically, we believe this is where he would have discarded
this murder weapon.
00:29:48
-Investigators believe
Phillip Cutler, who was here
for approximately eight minutes,
00:29:53
also tossed Jocelyn's
missing cellphone in this area. So if you want to
get rid of something,
00:30:01
this is the place to throw it. -An ideal place. 100%. Yeah. -Phillip Cutler, who had been down on his luck
before Jocelyn's murder,
00:30:11
revealed a lot more
after his arrest. -When we interviewed
Mr. Cutler, we questioned him
about a package
00:30:17
that Cornelius Green
had sent him via the UPS. And Phillip Cutler indicated
to us
00:30:23
that he was sent $2,500 in US
currency from Cornelius Greene. -In early March 2016,
00:30:31
a police report was filed
by Carr Lane Middle school. There had been a theft
of cash raised by students
00:30:38
on the dance team,
and according to investigators, Cornelius Green,
who was the principal,
00:30:44
had access to those funds. -It was approximately
three separate thefts that ended up totaling $2,700.
00:30:54
-Biondolino believed
the evidence was adding up and Cornelius Green was
the common denominator.
00:31:00
-We're fairly conclusive that this money taken from
this dance team is the same cash
00:31:05
that was mailed to Philip Cutler
to murder Jocelyn Peters. -He's stealing from his school.
-Yes.
00:31:12
-To give money to a hit man
to kill his girlfriend. -Correct.
-$2,500. -$2,500. Yeah.
00:31:22
-I mean, how cheap is a life? -It tells you what
he thinks about, you know, a human life's worth.
00:31:30
And it's pretty disgusting. -In August 2016, Cornelius Green
was arrested for theft.
00:31:40
-He was visibly more upset
than I think he'd been throughout
this entire investigation
00:31:46
that he was being arrested
for theft. -Green posted bail and was removed from his
position as school principal.
00:31:57
Jocelyn's former principal,
Nicole Conaway. -To hear that somebody I knew,
especially a fellow principal,
00:32:04
could take advantage of children
like that, it's disgusting. It's absolutely disgusting.
00:32:11
-Two months later,
in October 2016, Cornelius Green was arrested and charged with the murders of
his girlfriend, Jocelyn Peters,
00:32:20
and the baby
they were expecting. Shortly after that,
Green's wife filed for divorce.
00:32:26
Investigators say she was not
involved in Jocelyn's murder. Do you remember your reaction
00:32:32
when you heard
he had been arrested? -I was happy, but I had said some words
I don't think I could say on TV.
00:32:38
-Mm-hmm.
And how about you, Deidre? -It was bittersweet. Didn't feel like it was justice.
00:32:48
Only because it took so long. -That's because
the homicide docket at the St. Louis
Circuit Attorney's Office
00:32:56
was backlogged. And the Jocelyn Peters
murder case slowed to a crawl for years. Then in 2022,
00:33:04
the U.S. Attorney's Office
reviewed the evidence. -We looked at it because
it is a classic federal case.
00:33:12
It's a murder-for-hire case. -Assistant U.S. Attorney
Tiffany Becker, now retired,
prosecuted the case.
00:33:20
-Here we had the interstate
nexus of Philip Cutler coming down to St. Louis
to commit the murder.
00:33:27
But not only that, we had Cornelius mailing
a package to Oklahoma filled with money.
00:33:34
That was the for-hire prong
of the crime. -School friends Cornelius Green
and Philip Cutler
00:33:42
would be co-defendants
in a federal courtroom. But a surprise twist two weeks
before their murder trial
00:33:50
would change the direction
of this case. ♪♪ -When Assistant U.S. Attorney
Tiffany Becker
00:34:13
was preparing for trial, she wanted the jury
to hear about Cornelius Green and Jocelyn Peters' relationship
before the murder.
00:34:21
-I think it had
increasingly been tense between the two of them, with the sore spot in
the relationship being the fact
00:34:31
that Cornelius had
not gotten the divorce he had promised Jocelyn
he would. I think Joselyn
finally was realizing
00:34:40
maybe this was never
going to happen. -Jocelyn, who was seven months
pregnant, didn't know it,
00:34:47
but Cornelius Green had
searched the Internet for ways to terminate a pregnancy.
00:34:52
-Through his searches, he's looking at
how to obtain medications, how to conceal that within
oatmeal or yogurt or juice,
00:35:02
how to make your own capsules. Those searches continue and
appear to be fruitless for him
00:35:09
because Jocelyn
is still pregnant. -There's no concrete evidence Cornelius Green put those
Internet searches into motion,
00:35:17
but Becker believes
Cornelius wanted out. -I believe he wanted to not be
involved with Jocelyn anymore
00:35:24
and didn't want
a financial obligation that Micah Leigh represented
to him. -The investigation
also revealed Green
00:35:32
had purchased
a .380 semiautomatic pistol a few years before the murder. That weapon has
never been found,
00:35:40
but it was the same caliber
as the shell casing discovered
in Jocelyn Peters' bedroom.
00:35:48
-Bill and I
are federal attorneys. In a way, we act as special
public defenders in the matter.
00:35:55
-Attorneys Nick Williams
and Bill Marsh would represent Cornelius Green
at trial.
00:36:01
-What was he like
when you met him? Cornelius Green.
-He's an intelligent person.
00:36:05
He's got family support. He is someone who listens to
what you have to say. -Bill, you're nodding along.
You agree?
00:36:14
-Yeah. He was very respectful. A lot of times
when there are, you know,
high stakes in a criminal case,
00:36:20
there can be friction
with your client. There really wasn't any
with Cornelius. -Cornelius had maintained
his innocence
00:36:27
throughout his eight years
in custody. -When we get involved
in a case, part of our job is to identify
the strengths and weaknesses
00:36:36
of the prosecution. This is a case that involved a
lot of circumstantial evidence.
00:36:42
-But the defense faced
a big challenge. Before the U.S. Attorney's
Office decided to take the case,
00:36:49
state prosecutors
had charged both men with murder and were seeking
the death penalty.
00:36:55
-There's a phrase in the world
of capital litigation -- death is different. And when we're advising
someone at any time,
00:37:02
it's a capital case. It's going to be different
advice than it might be if it were not
a death penalty case.
00:37:09
-On February 28, 2024, eight years
after Jocelyn Peters' murder and two weeks before his trial,
00:37:18
Green pleaded guilty
to federal charges. -Green pled guilty
as part of a plea agreement.
00:37:25
-He's pleading guilty
to the two counts that he was charged with
on the federal level.
00:37:30
Again, conspiracy to commit
murder and the murder itself. -That he paid Mr. Cutler
to kill his pregnant girlfriend?
00:37:39
-It was part of the factual
basis made, yes. -it was a difficult day,
but at the end of the day,
00:37:45
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,
00:37:52
both his and Jocelyn's family. -After Green pleaded guilty, the state dismissed
its murder case
00:37:59
along with the theft charges, but his co-defendant,
Philip Cutler, wanted his day in court.
00:38:05
He faced the same
federal charges. -You know, his defense
sort of tried to argue that,
00:38:12
really, Philip Cutler was
nothing more than a pawn in Cornelius Green's
elaborate chess game,
00:38:19
that Cornelius Green is
a master manipulator and he's the victim. -Well, that was clearly false.
00:38:25
He met with Cornelius. The text messages do not lie. Philip's location information
00:38:31
and the vehicle being there
at the time of the crime do not lie. -You don't think
he was manipulated
00:38:37
by Cornelius into this? -No, I think he wanted money
desperately because he was
in such dire straits.
00:38:45
And he had loyalty
to his friend. -Investigator Mark Biondolino
was in the courtroom.
00:38:50
There were no cameras
permitted at trial. -What was his demeanor
like at the trial?
00:38:56
-It ranged from
sleeping at times. He showed a lack of remorse and a lack of credibility.
00:39:05
-Cutler took the stand
in his own defense, and he told the jury
what he claims was written
on those notepad pages
00:39:15
he swallowed. -He said it was a person's
name and number that he was buying weed from.
00:39:21
-The jury didn't seem
to buy Cutler's testimony. Their verdict? Guilty. Philip Cutler
and Cornelius Green
00:39:28
were sentenced
to two consecutive life terms for the murders
of Jocelyn Peters and the baby she was expecting,
Micah Leigh.
00:39:37
Tiffany Becker says she was
relieved for the Peters family. -So happy that the closure
that they deserved came to be,
00:39:47
and so happy that Jocelyn's
death was avenged and Micah's. -Jocelyn's friend Tierrus Tucker
00:39:53
still has a lot
of unanswered questions. What would you say to Cornelius if you had an opportunity
to speak to him?
00:40:03
-Part of me wants to know why. Like, just why? He's a monster, and
he's the worst kind of monster
00:40:11
because he pretends
to be something else. -Jocelyn's family
will always remember her
00:40:17
as the third-grade teacher
with a vibrant spirit. -I know Jocelyn is living
everlasting life.
00:40:26
Her and Micah
are growing together, and they're with
other loved ones. God had a bigger plan,
00:40:33
so maybe she was called on
to teach the other angels. To educate, to inspire. -You could see directly from
those windows into their house.