Lead murder detective Mark Biondolino started the investigation into Jocelyn Peters’ homicide on March 24, 2016. Since then, he has remained related to the case though he is now retired from the St. Louis, Missouri, Police Division.
Mark Biondolino: I feel you’ve got a duty to try this.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: You needed to see it to the tip.
Mark Biondolino: You gotta see it to the tip …
Mark Biondolino: … when you’re working in murder … you are not simply gonna let it fall by the wayside.
We took a drive to town’s Central West Finish neighborhood. Nestled among the many historic properties is Jocelyn Peters’ residence constructing.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Her residence’s proper up there.
Mark Biondolino: Yeah … It is the second-floor balcony you see that is, uh, instantly in entrance of us.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Is it simple to entry that residence?
Mark Biondolino: From the surface? Completely not … I imply, it is a large distance from the bottom as much as that balcony.
A curious crime scene
Jocelyn Peters lived in Condominium 201. The 30-year-old, third grade trainer had been murdered in the midst of the evening whereas she was sleeping in her mattress. Authorities consider she was killed between 3 a.m. and three:40 a.m.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced (exterior residence constructing): How do you get contained in the constructing?
Mark Biondolino: So, that is the entrance lobby entry strategy to the residence complicated … you’d have to make use of your, uh, your key to get in by that entrance lobby, after which go up the steps, instantly on the high of the banister of the staircase.
Jocelyn’s boyfriend Cornelius Inexperienced had been in Chicago for 3 days. When he returned to St. Louis on Thursday March 24, he advised investigators he drove his automotive — a white Kia Optima — straight to her place. Jocelyn’s mom Lacey Peters says she obtained an alarming name from Cornelius quickly after.
Lacey Peters: When he known as me, he advised me that he went to go verify on her and he or she was … on the ground.
Dedra Peters, Jocelyn’s aunt, says she had heard one thing was fallacious together with her niece. She instantly started driving in direction of her residence. However earlier than she might get there —
Dedra Peters: Lacey had known as … and he or she stated “Dedra pull over” … and I do not bear in mind something that occurred at that time as a result of I misplaced it.
Police had given Lacey information no mom needs to listen to. Jocelyn, her eldest daughter, was useless.
Lacey Peters: I simply bear in mind … simply crying and simply screaming. …This could not be true.
Authorities say there have been no indicators of compelled entry at Jocelyn’s residence. The wooden door on the important entrance appeared safe and durable.
Mark Biondolino: The owner … was hyper safe over who had keys and what kind of keys are used to get into that constructing.
Mark Biondolino: The keys … had been non-duplicatable … they’re unable to be duplicated … when you took it to a locksmith, they are not allowed to make a replica for you or they may lose their … certification.
It was no shock to investigators that Cornelius had keys to Jocelyn’s place. Whereas they did not stay collectively, that they had been in an intimate relationship for five years. Jocelyn was seven months pregnant and Cornelius was the daddy.
Dedra Peters: Jocelyn felt that he’d make an exquisite father.
Jocelyn Peters/Fb
In Jocelyn’s house, investigators found a visitor listing, in addition to invites impressed by “Alice in Wonderland” for her upcoming child bathe. Biondolino and his crew had loads of questions in regards to the crime scene.
Mark Biondolino: Had the residence been ransacked? Had it appeared like there’d been a wrestle?
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Do you see any of that?
Mark Biondolino: Completely not … It did not even remotely look disturbed.
Jocelyn’s cellphone was lacking. A single shell casing from a .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol was found on the ground close to the nightstand.
Mark Biondolino: From my investigative standpoint, we noticed that she was laying on her aspect … head going through the headboard … she had a obvious wound to her eye.
And there was one thing investigators had by no means seen earlier than — potato fragments splattered within the bed room.
Mark Biondolino: … splattered about within the headboard, items of it on the sufferer, round her head and round her pillow and round behind the place her head was.
U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace within the Jap District of Missouri.
They quickly had a idea.
Mark Biondolino: We consider the potato was used as a … makeshift suppression silencer … to silence the sound of the firearm being fired
Biondolino confirmed us how authorities consider the killer used it.
Mark Biondolino: I might think about that the shooter would have the gun — I am right-handed so he’d be holding a gun in his proper hand and he’d must put that potato out over the barrel of the gun.
Anne Marie-Inexperienced: What is the danger? How harmful is that?
Mark Biondolino: I imply, I feel — I am no gun professional by any means, however I feel that is — it falls in that class of extraordinarily harmful and very dangerous.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Can a potato work as a silencer?
Mark Biondolino: I consider it did on this situation … and I say that as a result of after we did our canvas, after we, you already know, appeared for requires service within the space across the time of this homicide … no person ever indicated or made a name that they’d heard a gunshot.
Whoever killed Jocelyn Peters could have silenced the gunshot in her residence, however exterior surveillance cameras on the road had been recording. Shortly after 3 a.m. on the day of the homicide, one of many cameras captured a picture of a white sedan. The car was eerily just like Cornelius Inexperienced’s automotive — a white Kia Optima.
A beloved and devoted trainer
When Jocelyn Peters graduated from faculty, she knew she needed to be a trainer.
Tierrus Tucker: We had been gonna be each educating third grade, and so there have been issues that we needed to like work out.
Tierrus Tucker first met Jocelyn after they began educating at Mann Elementary.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Why do you suppose educating was so essential to her.
Tierrus Tucker: Jocelyn … I feel that she felt this sense of urgency, to make it possible for she was giving again to college students.
Jocelyn knew a top quality training could be a sport changer for teenagers and he or she wasn’t afraid to sort out thorny points going through St. Louis public faculties.
JOCELYN PETERS | YouTube: 80 p.c of elementary faculties don’t make use of full time artwork, music, or bodily training academics.
Nicole Conaway: She was all the time testing what she might do in a different way to satisfy the youngsters’ wants …
Nicole Conaway, the previous principal at Mann Elementary faculty, had met Cornelius Inexperienced, a center faculty principal, at a piece retreat. She had been trying to rent a third-grade trainer and Cornelius really useful Jocelyn.
Nicole Conaway: He known as me and stated … I’ve a candidate for you … She’s nice.
On the time she had no thought Cornelius was in a relationship with Jocelyn.
Nicole Conaway: I introduced her in and interviewed her … and about 15, 20 minutes in … I stated, might you please step within the hallway whereas we discuss you … so I introduced her again in and I provided her the job in that second.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Fifteen minutes in?
Nicole Conaway: She was a vibrant mild, she all the time has been … she talked about how she needed to be invested … and care for youngsters, and he or she needed to show them.
Robert Cohen/St. Louis Submit-Dispatch/Polaris
In 2014, Jocelyn Peters obtained one of the crucial prestigious honors for educators in St. Louis.
Nicole Conaway: She … was awarded the Pettus Excellence Award for the district.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What’s that recognizing?
Nicole Conaway: It is recognizing excellence within the classroom … We had been very happy with her.
By the spring of 2016, she was additionally fulfilling some private desires. She shocked her mom Lacey with the information.
Jocelyn was anticipating a child lady and had named her Micah Leigh.
Nicole Conaway: We had been all very excited for her.
And the daddy to be, Cornelius Inexperienced, gave the impression to be an excellent match for Jocelyn. Cornelius was in a fraternity and he or she was lively in her sorority. And, like Jocelyn, he was an award-winning educator.
In accordance with her household, he appeared smitten from the beginning.
Lacey Peters: He actively pursued her …
Dedra Peters: He began giving her flowers –
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Mm-hmm.
Dedra Peters: — and items and was very persistent.
Jocelyn’s buddy Tierrus additionally observed how attentive he was.
Tierrus Tucker: Jocelyn and I … we ran a 5K a few instances … and he was on the 5K … so he appeared actually supportive in that manner.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: How did she discuss in regards to the relationship? What had been her hopes and desires for it?
Tierrus Tucker: I do know that Jocelyn … needed to be married and that … she needed a household … and I recall her and him like going to go take a look at homes.
However Jocelyn, she says, had grown pissed off with Cornelius through the course of.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: He did not like every of the homes?
Tierrus Tucker: No.
Dedra picked up on Jocelyn’s annoyance as nicely.
Dedra Peters: How come he is not actively trying like I am trying? How come he is not wanting this as a lot as I am wanting this?
Jocelyn was able to be a home-owner. In spite of everything, her profession was thriving, she was anticipating a child and, in January, she had turned 30 years outdated. She booked a belated birthday cruise to the Bahamas to have a good time throughout spring break and invited her household and Cornelius.
Dedra Peters: I feel after we began to see little adjustments is after we had been on our trip.
Jocelyn’s mom Lacey and her aunt Dedra say Cornelius, who was normally the lifetime of the social gathering, appeared “totally different.”
Dedra Peters: He was simply distant. … I imply he was not attentive to her wants. I imply she’s pregnant … she’s simply trying very uncomfortable. He is not attempting to make sure that she’s consuming … He is not attempting to assist her strolling.
Lacey Peters: Mm-hmm.
Dedra Peters: Even to look him in his face, he appeared empty … the entire time on the cruise we’re saying what on the planet is occurring with him?
Every week after the cruise, Jocelyn Peters was useless. Investigators knew the crime scene held some intriguing clues. Along with the potato fragments found in her bed room, authorities discovered a bag of potatoes on the eating room desk.
Mark Biondolino: she’s seven months pregnant. … She has a menu … you already know, like a chalk menu, a weekly menu.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Yeah. She was being very cautious together with her food regimen.
Mark Biondolino: Very cautious together with her food regimen and her fridge, fruits, greens. It wasn’t junk meals. It was healthful.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Yeah.
Mark Biondolino: … the entire menus, lunch, breakfast, dinner that she had lined up, there wasn’t potato listed in there, you already know, ever. So, it was simply — it simply was odd.
They’d quickly study that Jocelyn had deliberate to go to the grocery store two days earlier than Cornelius traveled to Chicago.
Mark Biondolino: She’s telling him she’s going grocery purchasing. He is adamant — watch for me, I will meet you there on the grocery retailer.
What the interview room cameras captured
Cornelius Inexperienced advised investigators on the crime scene that he had been in Chicago when Jocelyn was murdered and that he might show it to investigators.
Mark Biondolino: He goes, I wasn’t right here. … I simply got here right here straight from the Amtrak station. … exhibits him an Amtrak ticket nearly instantly …
Lead investigator Mark Biondolino.
Mark Biondolino: And he was very oddly particular on what time he bought off the Amtrak …
U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace within the Jap District of Missouri
Actually, safety footage from the St. Louis practice station exhibits Cornelius Inexperienced, with baggage in tow, returning on Thursday, March 24, 2016, roughly 12 hours after Jocelyn was murdered. Cornelius advised authorities his practice had arrived at 2:57 p.m. and he had pushed to her residence.
Mark Biondolino: He known as 911 at like 3:19 p.m.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: He had it right down to the minute when he known as 911.
Mark Biondolino: To the minute, yeah … it was inherently apparent that he needed detectives to know … I wasn’t wherever round right here when this occurred.
Detectives drove him from the crime scene to headquarters to reply extra questions.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: So earlier than you stroll into that interview room with Cornelius Inexperienced, what’s your plan?
Mark Biondolino: There is no smoking gun piece of data … We need to lay out a timeline for him. the place he was at previous to discovering Ms. Peters …
Mark Biondolino: We wanna get … into the weeds with him.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO (police interview): … And also you stated you had been calling her this morning.
You did not get in touch together with her?
CORNELIUS GREEN: The telephone saved going straight to voicemail.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: And that is her cellular phone?
CORNELIUS GREEN: Sure, sir.
U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace within the Jap District of Missouri
Biondolino says Cornelius was respectful however standoffish within the interview room. And when Cornelius was questioned about his automotive — a 2013 white Kia Optima — he appeared agitated.
DET. MICHAEL HERZBERG: (police interview) Would you want to offer us consent to look in your automotive so we are able to simply rule out that there is something in there? Or do we have to get a search warrant?
CORNELIUS GREEN: I simply do not perceive why …
DET. MICHAEL HERZBERG: … put your self in our sneakers, you already know, I imply, if you do not have something to cover —
CORNELIUS GREEN: No, I respect that however, uh, my drawback is that I do not prefer to be — really feel like — I really feel like a prison. Like why would you get a search warrant …
Mark Biondolino: He was adamant that he did not need us to have something to do with seeing no matter was in his automotive or accessing that automotive.
Cornelius defined to investigators that he had loaned his automotive whereas he was away to a person named Phillip Cutler who had been visiting from Oklahoma.
Mark Biondolino: He identifies Phillip Cutler as a person who got here into city. First he says it is his brother. Later identifies him … as a detailed childhood buddy.
Cutler was initially from St. Louis.
Mark Biondolino: There was apparent quantity of belief happening between these two people … Cutler was … recognized as the one that was transporting Mr. Inexperienced to the Amtrak station, selecting him up from the Amtrak station when he arrived again on the town.
Investigators say as soon as Cutler dropped the automotive off with Cornelius the 2 went their separate methods. Cornelius was questioned for 2 hours. Earlier than he left the police station he made a name to Phillip Cutler.
It appears Cornelius did not understand the digital camera was nonetheless rolling and the microphone was sizzling.
U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace within the Jap District of Missouri
CORNELIUS GREEN (in police interview room) … I am down at police division. … Go get my automotive from the tackle I am bout to textual content you to. … I would like that to occur like proper now.
PHILLIP CUTLER: OK.
CORNELIUS GREEN: Thanks.
Then Cornelius known as a lady named Steffanie about his automotive keys.
CORNELIUS GREEN: Hey, are you at house?
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: And what does he say to her?
Mark Biondolino: He signifies to her that he wants her to go meet Phil … Mr. Cutler …
STEFFANIE: The place’s he at?
CORNELIUS GREEN: He is gonna meet up with you.
Mark Biondolino: He would not go into particulars as to why … He identifies a spot the place she will be able to go to satisfy Phillip Cutler. … there’s an enormous Amoco signal by a fuel station … that is a widely known marker.
Uniformed law enforcement officials stopped Steffanie and Phillip Cutler close to the Amoco station and took them to police headquarters for questioning. Because it seems, Steffanie had identified Cutler for years. He was a groomsman, in her marriage ceremony, to Cornelius Inexperienced.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: When did you all discover out that he certainly had a spouse?
Dedra Peters: Jocelyn advised me.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Early on?
Dedra Peters: She did. However they had been divorced — nicely, not divorced, however they had been separated. And dealing –
Lacey Peters: Legally separated. That is the –
Dedra Peters: Proper.
Lacey Peters: — manner it was advised.
Steffanie and Cornelius had a younger daughter however had not been residing collectively for a number of years. Steffanie was questioned briefly and launched, however investigators needed to know extra from Phillip Cutler. Minutes earlier than his interview began, Cutler, alone within the interview room, had achieved one thing fully weird.
U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace within the Jap District of Missouri
Authorities had not witnessed Cutler’s odd conduct in actual time so Biondolino and his associate, unaware of what had simply occurred, started questioning Cutler who claimed he’d by no means met Cornelius’s girlfriend Jocelyn.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO (police interview): Are you aware the place his, uh, girlfriend resided?
PHILLIP CUTLER: Uh-uh.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: Had no thought?
PHILLIP CUTLER: Uh-uh.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: And you have by no means met her? By no means ever been along with him or by no means been o — over wherever the place she lived or something like that?
PHILLIP CUTLER: Nope. Not by no means.
Mark Biondolino: There’s an entire slew of issues that we are able to transfer ahead with after interviewing Phillip Cutler.
Investigators did not have sufficient proof to arrest Cutler, he was free to depart. However earlier than he left the interview room, Cutler gave investigators an essential piece of data.
Mark Biondolino: He provides us his telephone quantity.
Cutler allowed investigators to look at a few of his textual content messages, however he did not give them consent to look at his telephone. 5 days after Jocelyn’s homicide, Cornelius went to police headquarters and gave investigators entry to his telephone. He additionally supplied them with a written assertion.
Mark Biondolino: … he principally began from, he went over to Jocelyn’s home on the twentieth. They went grocery purchasing … and he particularly mentions that that they had baked potato for dinner. … it was very imprecise, but it surely was very particular to say potatoes … it raised the hairs on my neck once I learn it.
Investigators had realized Jocelyn and Cornelius went to an ALDI grocery store on Sunday March 20, 4 days earlier than her homicide.
Mark Biondolino: And we go to that ALDI’s and we acquire the surveillance video.
U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace within the Jap District of Missouri
The digital camera had captured video of a pair with a grocery cart. Perched prominently on high of it was a giant 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 earlier than she’s murdered … it stands out.
The potato purchasing was curious however not robust proof. That will come quickly. Examination of the info on Inexperienced and Cutler’s telephones would expose a textual content dialog between them nearly a month earlier than Jocelyn’s homicide:
Digital eyewitness reveals new clues
Investigators hoped a more in-depth take a look at Cornelius Inexperienced’s telephone and Phillip Cutler’s telephone quantity would supply new leads and so they weren’t disenchanted.
Mark Biondolino: We dumped the telephone, for lack of a greater time period.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: And inform me what you discover out?
Mark Biondolino: There was quite a bit in Cornelius’s telephone.
An examination of Cornelius Inexperienced’s digital historical past had revealed a curious textual content message chain with Phillip Cutler:
CORNELIUS GREEN: … Once you coming right here?
PHILLIP CUTLER: When do u need me to come back there?
CORNELIUS GREEN: Spring break. March 18th-Twenty second
CORNELIUS GREEN: Week of March twentieth
PHILLIP CUTLER: Okay. that can work.
PHILLIP CUTLER: u gonna b sending the bundle?
Phillip Cutler/Fb
The dialog was cryptic however, the phrases spoke volumes to Biondolino.
Mark Biondolino: … to us as investigators … we’re taking a look at this after the homicide of Jocelyn Peters. That is … a quid professional quo to us, an settlement that appears like has been made between Cutler and Inexperienced.
That textual content was written lower than a month earlier than Jocelyn was murdered.
Mark Biondolino: … he is getting one thing from Cornelius for coming into city.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: You do not know what that’s?
Mark Biondolino: We do not — we do not know what it’s. So we glance into how did he get it? … We all know Cutler is in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and Inexperienced is from St. Louis. I attain out to contacts, the USA Postal Service, FedEx, UPS. You realize, we had — we now have contacts we are able to attain out to them …
His contacts delivered.
Mark Biondolino: Properly, positive sufficient, UPS bundle was mailed from Cornelius Inexperienced … from … right here in St. Louis to Phillip Cutler’s tackle in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What’s within the bundle?
Mark Biondolino: We do not know what’s in bundle … It is an envelope. It is … a number of ounces and it’s $48 charged to be shipped there in a single day, needed to be signed for.
Phillip Cutler had signed for the bundle a couple of weeks earlier than Jocelyn’s homicide. Authorities did not discover Cutler’s DNA or fingerprints inside her residence, however the circumstantial proof in opposition to him was mounting. In June 2016, Biondolino bought a warrant for Cutler’s arrest.
Mark Biondolino: We responded to Muskogee, Oklahoma, the place he was … taken into custody.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: … you’ve got the suitable to have a lawyer and have her or him with you —
PHILLIP CUTLER: Mm-hmm.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: — uh, whilst you’re being questioned. Do you perceive that?
PHILLIP CULTER: Sure.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: Sure.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Inform me about him being taken into custody after which questioned.
Mark Biondolino: Yeah … It is laid out on the desk to him … we … suggested him that he’s below arrest and he’s going to be charged with the homicide of Jocelyn Peters and her unborn baby.
Investigators confirmed the automotive seen on the safety video across the time of Jocelyn Peters’ homicide was certainly Cornelius Inexperienced’s white Kia Optima. Inexperienced, who was out of city, had loaned Cutler the automotive, however Cutler claimed he wasn’t driving it that evening.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: OK, no person had entry to that automotive, Phillip.
PHILLIP CUTLER: Man, then any person might’ve stole it then.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: No person stole it. Hey, they stole it after which gave it again to you, put it in the identical spot?
PHILLIP CUTLER: Hey, I do not know.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: Is that what you are telling me?
PHILLIP CUTLER: Someone might have took—
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: Maintain on.
PHILLIP CUTLER: I do not know who else was utilizing that automotive.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: Maintain on a second. Maintain on a second.
PHILLIP CUTLER: I used to be simply utilizing the automotive to do what I wanted to do whereas I used to be there.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: We all know you had been utilizing it to do what you wanted to do.
PHILLIP CUTLER: However that was it.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: OK.
PHILLIP CUTLER: I wasn’t within the automotive.
DET. MARK BIONDOLINO: All proper.
After his police interview, Cutler was transported from Muskogee, Oklahoma, again to St. Louis the place he was held in custody within the metropolis jail. Investigators additionally secured a search warrant for Cutler’s Google account and his telephone.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: And also you get an entire lot of data from that telephone?
Mark Biondolino: Completely. We get an amazing quantity of … very particular location knowledge as in relation to Phillip Cutler.
It had supplied a digital path to Jocelyn’s tackle on the day she was murdered.
Mark Biondolino: The Google location historical past confirmed he was really on that avenue. And sooner or later, throughout that night, between 2:59 and three:48 a.m., there was a ping … that exhibits instantly in that residence. … And we consider … at the moment in Jocelyn Peter’s residence.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Once you see his telephone pinging inside her residence, I imply as an investigator, does it get any higher than that?
Mark Biondolino: No. I feel so far as with what we now have right here, that’s … for lack of a greater time period, that is our digital eyewitness. You realize, that is it proper there.
That Google location knowledge delivered yet one more clue. Just a few hours after the homicide, Cutler’s telephone was on the transfer. Authorities say it ended up at North Riverfront Park. It is a stone’s throw from the banks of the Mississippi River and 10 miles from Jocelyn’s constructing.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced (at North Riverfront Park): What leads you down in direction of this manner?
Mark Biondolino: Uh, nicely, the explanation we thought he got here out right here was to discard proof from the homicide … particularly we consider that is the place he would have discarded this homicide weapon.
CBS Information
Investigators consider Phillip Cutler, who was right here for roughly 8 minutes, additionally tossed Jocelyn’s lacking cellular phone on this space.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: So when you wanna do away with one thing, that is the place to throw it.
Mark Biondolino: Oh an excellent place. 100%. Yeah.
Phillip Cutler, who had been down on his luck earlier than Jocelyn’s homicide, revealed much more after his arrest.
Mark Biondolino: After we interviewed Mr. Cutler … we questioned him a few bundle that
Cornelius Inexperienced had despatched him by way of the UPS … and Phillip Cutler indicated to us that he was despatched $2,500 in U.S. forex from Cornelius Inexperienced.
In early March 2016, a police report was filed by Carr Lane Center College. There had been a theft of money raised by college students on the dance crew. And based on investigators, Cornelius Inexperienced, who was the principal, had entry to these funds.
Mark Biondolino: It was roughly three separate thefts that ended up totaling $2,700.
Biondolino believed the proof was including up, and Cornelius Inexperienced was the frequent denominator.
Mark Biondolino: We’re pretty conclusive that … this cash taken from this dance crew … is identical money that was mailed to Phillip Cutler to homicide Jocelyn Peters.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: He is stealing from his faculty?
Mark Biondolino: Sure.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: To offer cash to a success man to kill his girlfriend?
Mark Biondolino: Right.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: $2,500?
Mark Biondolino: $2,500, yeah.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: I imply, how low cost is a life?
Mark Biondolino: It tells you what he thinks about, you already know, a human life’s price and, uh, it is fairly disgusting.
In August 2016, Cornelius Inexperienced was arrested for theft.
St. Louis Metropolis Police
Mark Biondolino: He was visibly extra upset than I feel he’d been all through this whole investigation that he was being arrested for theft.
Inexperienced posted bail and was faraway from his place as faculty principal. Jocelyn’s former principal Nicole Conaway.
Nicole Conaway: To listen to that … any person I knew, particularly a fellow principal might benefit from youngsters like that, it is disgusting. … That is completely disgusting.
Two months later, in October 2016, Cornelius Inexperienced was arrested and charged with the murders of his girlfriend Jocelyn Peters and the newborn they had been anticipating. Shortly after that Inexperienced’s spouse filed for divorce. Investigators say she was not concerned in Jocelyn’s homicide.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Do you bear in mind your response whenever you heard he’d been arrested?
Lacey Peters: … I used to be blissful. … however I had stated some phrases, I do not suppose I might say on TV.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Mm-hmm. And the way about you, Dedra?
Dedra Peters: It was bittersweet. … Did not really feel prefer it was justice solely as a result of it took so lengthy.
That is as a result of the murder docket on the St. Louis Circuit Legal professional’s Workplace was backlogged and the Jocelyn Peters homicide case slowed to a crawl for years. Then, in 2022, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace reviewed the proof.
Tiffany Becker: We checked out it as a result of it’s a basic federal case. It is a murder-for-hire case.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Tiffany Becker, now retired, prosecuted the case.
Tiffany Becker: Right here we had the interstate nexus of Phillip Cutler coming right down to St. Louis to commit the homicide, however not solely that we had Cornelius mailing a bundle to Oklahoma stuffed with cash. That was the for-hire prong of the crime.
College mates Cornelius Inexperienced and Phillip Cutler could be co-defendants in a federal courtroom, however a shock twist two weeks earlier than their homicide trial would change the course of this case.
A case of homicide for rent
When assistant U.S. legal professional Tiffany Becker was getting ready for trial, she needed the jury to listen to about Cornelius Inexperienced and Jocelyn Peters’ relationship earlier than the homicide.
Tiffany Becker: I feel it had more and more been tense between the 2 of them with the sore spot within the relationship being the truth that Cornelius had not gotten the divorce he had promised Jocelyn he would. … I feel Jocelyn lastly was realizing possibly this was by no means going to occur.
Jocelyn, who was seven months pregnant, did not comprehend it, however Cornelius Inexperienced had searched the web for methods to terminate a being pregnant.
Tiffany Becker: By way of his searches … he is taking a look at the way to acquire … drugs, the way to conceal that inside oatmeal or yogurt or juice, the way to make your personal capsules. These searches proceed and seem like fruitless for him as a result of Jocelyn remains to be pregnant.
There is no concrete proof Cornelius Inexperienced put these web searches into movement however Becker believes Cornelius needed out.
Tiffany Becker: I consider he needed to not be concerned with Jocelyn anymore and did not desire a monetary obligation that Micah Leigh represented to him.
The investigation additionally revealed Inexperienced had bought a .380 semi-automatic pistol a couple of years earlier than the homicide. That weapon has by no means been discovered, but it surely was the identical caliber because the shell casing found in Jocelyn Peters’ bed room.
Nick Williams: Invoice and I are federal attorneys. … in a manner we act as particular public defenders within the matter.
Attorneys Nick Williams and Invoice Marsh would characterize Cornelius Inexperienced at trial.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What was he like whenever you met him… Cornelius Inexperienced.
Nick Williams: He is an clever individual … he is bought household assist … he’s somebody who listens to what it’s important to say.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Invoice, you are nodding alongside, you agree?
Invoice Marsh: Yeah, he was very respectful. /lot of instances when there are, uh, you already know, excessive stakes in a prison case, uh, there will be friction together with your shopper. Uh, there actually wasn’t any with Cornelius.
Cornelius had maintained his innocence all through his eight years in custody.
Nicholas Williams: After we become involved in a case a part of our job is to establish the strengths and the weaknesses of the prosecution … this can be a case that concerned loads of circumstantial proof.
However the protection confronted a giant problem. Earlier than the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace determined to take the case, state prosecutors had charged each males with homicide and had been looking for the demise penalty.
Invoice Marsh: There is a phrase on the planet of capital litigation. Demise is totally different. And after we’re advising somebody, anytime it is a capital case, it is gonna be totally different recommendation than it is likely to be if it weren’t a demise penalty case.
On Feb. 28, 2024, eight years after Jocelyn Peters’ homicide and two weeks earlier than his trial, Inexperienced pleaded responsible to federal costs.
Nick Williams: He’s pleading responsible to the 2 counts that he was charged with on the federal degree. Once more, conspiracy to commit homicide and the homicide itself.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: That he paid Mr. Cutler to kill his pregnant girlfriend?
Nick Williams: That was a part of the factual foundation made. Sure.
Invoice Marsh: It was a tough day, however on the finish of the day, I feel he knew that it was in his greatest curiosity to try this. And I feel he additionally knew it was within the household’s greatest curiosity, each his and Jocelyn’s household.
St. Louis Metropolis Police/Muskogee County Sheriff’s Workplace
After Inexperienced pleaded responsible, the state dismissed its homicide case, together with the theft costs, however his co-defendant Phillip Cutler needed his day in court docket. He confronted the identical federal costs.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: You realize, his protection kind of tried to argue that basically Phillip Cutler was nothing greater than a pawn in Cornelius Inexperienced’s elaborate chess sport … that Cornelius Inexperienced is a grasp manipulator and he is the sufferer.
Tiffany Becker: Properly, that was clearly false. … he met with Cornelius … the textual content messages don’t lie. … Phillip’s location data and the car being there on the time of the crime don’t lie.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: You do not suppose he was manipulated by Cornelius into this?
Tiffany Becker: No. I feel he needed cash desperately as a result of he was in such dire straits. And he had loyalty to his buddy.
Investigator Mark Biondolino was within the courtroom. There have been no cameras permitted at trial.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What was his demeanor like on the trial?
Mark Biondolino (laughs): It ranged from, uh, sleeping at instances … he confirmed an absence of regret and a — and an absence of credibility.
Cutler took the stand in his personal protection. And he advised the jury what he claims was written on these notepad pages he swallowed.
Mark Biondolino: … he stated it was … an individual’s identify and quantity that he was shopping for weed from.
The jury did not appear to purchase Cutler’s testimony. Their verdict: responsible. Phillip Cutler and Cornelius Inexperienced had been sentenced to 2 consecutive life phrases for the murders of Jocelyn Peters and the newborn she was anticipating, Micah Leigh. Tiffany Becker says she was relieved for the Peters household.
Tiffany Becker: So blissful that the closure that they deserved got here to be, and so blissful that Jocelyn’s demise was avenged and Micah’s.
Lacey Peters/Fb
Jocelyn’s buddy Tierrus Tucker nonetheless has loads of unanswered questions.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What would you say to Cornelius when you had a chance to talk to him?
Tierrus Tucker: A part of me needs to know why? Like simply why? … He is a monster. And he is the worst form of monster as a result of he presents to be one thing else.
Jocelyn’s household will all the time bear in mind her because the third grade trainer with a vibrant spirit.
Dedra Peters: I do know Jocelyn resides eternal life … Her and Micah are rising collectively and so they’re with different family members. God had an even bigger plan. So possibly she was known as on to show the opposite angels, to teach, to encourage.
Jocelyn Peters’ college students devoted a bench on the faculty to honor her reminiscence.
Produced by Marcelena Spencer. Stephen A. McCain is the event producer. Marlon Disla and Michael Baluzy are the editors. Cameron Rubner is the affiliate producer. David Dow and Tamara Weitzman are the event producers. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.
