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00:10a pregnant woman found in her apartment a single gunshot wound through her eye that
00:16instantaneously killed her and the potato was used to silence the gun she was sound asleep
00:24and just ambushed in her own bed there was no DNA evidence no force entry this was not a burglary
00:34type homicide it looked like one of those old mafia movies what all is going on here there is a
00:42video
00:42surveillance of someone turning onto the victim street the night of the murder he tears out a
00:51single sheet of paper and proceeds to chew it up and swallow it there's no question that this was a
00:58elaborate premeditated plan to end her life
01:43we were dispatched to West Pine Avenue at the same time EMS
01:50responded declared the victim deceased at the scene we were met by the person who made a 911 call
01:57Cornelius Green and he said he was the boyfriend of the victim that was inside her name was Jocelyn
02:05Peters Cornelius was extremely out of breath a little bit frantic he told us Miss Peters was seven months
02:13pregnant and he oftentimes stayed with her at her apartment it was a secure building with a key that
02:21cannot be duplicated for the front main entrance door as you enter the apartment building you go through a
02:28secure locked glass foyer entrance the victim's apartment was that first apartment on the left as
02:35you walk up to the second floor as you enter the apartment to the right as the bedroom her bedroom
02:43door
02:44was opened the victim was on her bed laying on her right side pillow tucked underneath her arms blankets
02:51no longer on her you could definitely tell that she was pregnant she had her arms folded in it like
02:58she
02:58was sound asleep and just ambushed in her own bed she had an obvious gunshot wound through her eye and
03:06blood
03:07that had came down the side of her face and pooled on the pillow next to her arm terribly tragic
03:13scene I do
03:15not believe this poor woman ever knew what hit her before it happened the whole thing was horrible this
03:25was an investigation of a homicide as we looked around the bedroom we observed something that was
03:31extremely strange what appeared to be an organic material all around the victim on her bed large
03:37chunks of it on the wall and next to the bed this was unidentified and we immediately requested our
03:44evidence technicians to come in seize this material so we could send it off for further analysis we
03:51identified underneath the dresser next to the victim's bed a spent shell casing for a 380 caliber handgun
03:59but there was no DNA evidence obtained during that time one of the first things that I noticed is that
04:08there wasn't clothes strewn about there wasn't TVs or anything knocked over there wasn't drawers
04:14tossed out like someone that went through an apartment looking for something there was no
04:19forced entry nothing taken this was not a burglary type homicide there was something else going on here
04:26we also noticed there was gifts that were laid out there was a shirt that indicated I love daddy
04:34and other items related to her baby it looked like this woman's whole life was surrounded around the
04:43child that she was about to have while our evidence technicians were conducting the interior scene
04:50investigation we responded outside of the apartment and spoke with mr green Cornelius green was very upset
05:00and he told me that his girlfriend Jocelyn Peters was 30 years old and she was getting ready to have
05:07a
05:07shower for her child he immediately said you got to find out who killed the mother of my child and
05:12my
05:12unborn child Cornelius said that miss Peters was currently employed as a third grade school teacher at
05:19manna elementary school in the city of st. Louis and he said he was a principal at car lane school
05:25but he had prior
05:27worked at manna elementary and that's how they began the relationship and he also stated that he was
05:33out of town visiting some friends in Chicago and he got off the Amtrak train at 2 59 p.m.
05:39that day we
05:40continued our conversation I asked how many keys there were for the apartment he said he had one and the
05:47victim had one these are heavy-duty doors that if you had to break in you would have had to
05:52make a lot of
05:53noise you would have had to done damage none of that was visible so Cornelius green was taken down to
06:01police headquarters for more interviewing my phone just started ringing and ringing and ringing and I
06:10looked up it was Cornelius he was like it's been an accident it's been blood it's blood I said I
06:18got to
06:18go now it felt like I was driving only two miles an hour and I got to her apartment there
06:26was police and I
06:28walked to her door and the cop just looked at me and she was like she's dead and I was
06:37like what about the baby
06:40she was about the baby and she just kind of like dropped her head down and she was like the
06:45baby did
06:46to me I just couldn't believe it she wasn't the young lady that'd be out ripping running the street
06:53making enemies stuff like that she just wasn't that person and I told the police we just took a family
07:02cruise for her 30th birthday with Cornelius I believe they paid for the cruise together he was a good guy
07:09it was a good relationship she was really happy and ecstatic because this would have been her first child
07:16I just felt like if I could have traded my life for hers I would have gladly did it
07:29we have a young pregnant school teacher has no enemies no criminal history and she was shot in her sleep
07:39so we went back inside of the apartment we're gonna be meticulous take our time and go through and get
07:47every obstructive fact that we can obtain from the scene as we looked around the apartment again the
07:55kitchen was in order on the refrigerator the victim had a menu for the whole week written on a whiteboard
08:03contained everything she wanted to feed herself we observed on the kitchen dining room table a ten
08:10pound bag of russet baking potatoes the bag was open but the menu on her refrigerator none of those
08:18recipes indicated they use potatoes the substance that was all over the victim and the victim's bed and
08:25the walls the evidence technician unit was able to find a piece big enough that indicated it may possibly be
08:31a potato
08:33there's old mafia movies where they use potatoes as silencers if it was a silencer trick it's not like you're
08:42gonna go in and break into a house and then look around for potato decided to kill somebody sleeping
08:47somebody knew potato was gonna be there that they were gonna obviously use this was a clearly and
08:55obviously a premeditated and planned murder there was a package with the money to kill jocelyn peters and
09:07you could clearly see a ten pound bag of russet potatoes sitting on there she is literally purchasing the
09:14tools that are going to be used in her own murder it becomes very apparent how much thought process
09:19went put into this before it happened she never saw this coming
09:32on march 24 2016 when i found out that jocelyn peters was found shot to death what struck me immediately
09:41was the fact that she was pregnant and a potato was used to silence the gun so i went to
09:49the
09:49area where the crime scene was and people were talking about how nice and sweet she was
09:57i just didn't understand please please tell me this isn't true is it she was such a nurturing and loving
10:03teacher her passion her liveliness she was very very skilled and she had just this fire about her
10:11we knew she would be an amazing mom she was really excited about having the baby
10:18because this would have been her first child
10:22micha lee was the name for her baby that she was carrying and from my interviews with her family
10:28friends co-workers it was fairly obvious how excited jocelyn was to be a new mother
10:39upon speaking with the medical examiner at the scene it was determined that miss peters died between
10:46259 and 348 a.m from a single gunshot wound through her eye from a 380 caliber handgun that would
10:53have
10:53instantaneously killed her and caused the death of her unborn child i immediately thought how did this
11:00happen why did this happen mr green had told sergeant mcglynn that he was the only one to have access
11:06and
11:06keys to the apartment and there was no sign of force entry so corny this green was obviously a person
11:14of
11:14interest at this point so we conveyed mr green down to the homicide office so we could interview him
11:24when murders happen the overwhelming majority of them are at the hands of someone that we know
11:30the family member the family member spouse brother sister something like that during that initial
11:37interview we want to see his body language how he speaks does he react as most people normally do
11:43in a situation like that how you doing it's wernelius hey if i can ask you one thing i'll have
11:51you sit right
11:51there what's your last name brand sorry hey i just want to express my condolences okay we're gonna do
11:58everything we can to help get you through this situation okay cornelius green when he's being
12:06questioned by the detectives he seems to be upset about losing this child losing this woman that he
12:11has loved but he doesn't engage in a heck of a lot of eye contact it seems that he is
12:17trying hard to
12:19manage the way other people see him nobody in that apartment complex that jocelyn was having a problem
12:24with or anybody there that was she never said hey there's you know crazy guy downstairs during that
12:32same time we want us get a timeline of when did you get into town how did you get here
12:38when did you
12:38come home from chicago as he's on the train coming back to st louis cornelius starts calling jocelyn
12:52repeatedly not getting answers he calls her mother and says i'm concerned she's not answering my calls
13:00when you talk to her mother what did her mother say she's going to voicemail but everything should
13:05be fine so i just kept calling until i got to the station and i just went over there cornelius
13:10informed
13:11me that he was picked up by his friend in cornelius's car he dropped his friend off came over
13:21to the apartment and found the victim in our process of our investigation we're going to go through
13:28take some elimination fingerprints i just think could you stay there sure so how do you need
13:35while we were interviewing him i had the investigators call the train station we got their surveillance
13:40footage and we could see cornelius coming off the amtrak train into the terminal cornelius green was out
13:48town in chicago at the time of the murder so he obviously was not to trigger man but the odd
13:56thing
13:56about that was he was looking up at the cameras to make sure that you could see a good clear
14:01view of him
14:02getting off that train he made a point to be seen that was something that stuck in our head so
14:08we had
14:08to keep digging we wanted to get a little background on his ongoing relationship with jocelyn peters
14:16cordialis how long have you known jocelyn we started dating in 2011. he had stated that they
14:23had been looking at houses and had just two weeks prior to her death went on a cruise together with
14:29several members of her family but then he said something that was extremely strange so everything
14:48mr green explained to us that he was currently separated from his wife obtaining a divorce and it
14:54was due to his ongoing relationship with miss peters at that point i wanted to search carnelius's car
15:03and i was going to search the victim's car as well because vehicles are places that sometimes evidence
15:09ends up it's an extension of the crime scene would you like to give us consent to look in your
15:13car so
15:14we just rule out that there's anything in there i just don't understand why by looking in your car
15:18and not seeing anything that jumps out at us we would be saying okay cornelius isn't involved in this
15:26i'm not okay mr green became extremely agitated felt like it was an accusatory question that we would
15:31ask him i feel like when you do that i'm actually shooting like a criminal you want us to rule
15:35you
15:35out right how am i being moved in sir i really haven't been here he became irate towards us and
15:43refused consent for any officers to look inside of his vehicle at that current time when you're like
15:50this guy is obviously involved in something and then during the course of our interview
15:56um mr green requested to contact his daughter and we monitored this as it was happening live
16:07he had the volume up so loud that you could hear the other person on the other line talking
16:21in his vehicle had still remained at the scene and he was reaching out to his wife stephanie
16:28he wanted her to meet with someone named philip and give him the keys so philip can go pick up
16:34his
16:34vehicle which makes zero sense when his girlfriend and his child have just been murdered it makes you
16:40wonder who is philip and why is cornelius so concerned about his wife meeting with this man
16:47and what all is going on here
16:56at one point during the interview with cornelius green he makes a phone call to his wife
17:03can you meet up with philip please
17:05hey my car cornelius had requested his wife stephanie to get his spare key and take it to a friend
17:13of
17:13his named philip after speaking to his wife he reached out to philip hey i'm gonna text your
17:21staff's number could you help her and get my key in my car i need that to happen like right
17:27now
17:29green arranges for stephanie and philip to meet at this gas station by forest park and highway 40
17:36and then cornelius wants him to go pick up his vehicle at the crime scene it was kind of shocking
17:43to see him do that i wanted to know what was on the inside of that car that cornelius was
17:49trying to hide
17:50cornelius wasn't a suspect but his extreme concern over his vehicle gave us a pause and concern to
17:58investigate further but we were not able to get a search warrant because there was not enough tangible
18:04evidence at that point so we went back in the interview room and we asked who he was talking to
18:11he admitted that he called his wife stephanie and a friend of his named philip cutler we wanted to
18:20know why he's the one that cornelius reached out to how long have you known philip cutler
18:2615 20 years does he live in town or is he living out of town when did he come into
18:32town monday monday
18:36from kilco obviously we knew that in the 22nd cornelius green took the amtrak train to chicago
18:42we wanted to know who gave him a ride to the amtrak station how did you get today train station
18:51philip dropped off on tuesday and uh what did you do with your car
18:58we knew he did not want us to search that vehicle which really didn't make sense
19:03we wanted to know what would philip cutler do with the car well cornelius was gone
19:10was he near jocelyn peter's apartment during the time when the murder occurred so now he's
19:16the person that we got interviewed we had investigators respond to that gas station
19:21they were able to make contact with stephanie green and philip cutler and they're both brought
19:25down to the homicide division where we're able to interview him that evening
19:30we obviously had to look pretty hard at cornelius's wife because he indicated there
19:35was a divorce that was going to take place stephanie green was shook up and in a fragile emotional
19:41state while we're speaking to her she had no idea that cornelius was involved in this relationship
19:46with our victim jocelyn peters and she was further unaware that cornelius and jocelyn were expecting
19:54a newborn child it was kind of a bombshell that was dropped on her that was immediately a red flag
20:02for detectives cornelius's wife said there was no talk of divorce there was no talk of we're having
20:09problems and she had an alibi when the murder occurred stephanie was cooperative there was nothing that
20:16indicated to us that she was being dishonest or deceitful so we have to rule stephanie out but
20:23mr green's lies regarding him obtaining a divorce from his wife made him look even more to us like
20:30a suspect during this investigation so the next step was to speak with philip cutler you're fully aware
20:38there was a homicide correct yes and who do you know the victim to be um my friend's girlfriend
20:47you ever met her he stated that he had not personally met her and denied ever being over
20:56at victim peter's residence then we kind of went into a let's get a timeline of when did you get
21:03into
21:03town when did you plan this trip to come back to st louis a couple weeks when you came back
21:09to st louis
21:10came back to st louis on uh monday he stated he'd come here on the greyhound bus cornelius picked him
21:20up at the bus station on the 21st at approximately 10 30 in the evening you guys hang out here
21:27and cornelius
21:28hang out the next day or what he uh he had to leave town he went out of town to
21:35go on some trip
21:37to do something i forget he told me when we asked him you came down to visit your friend doesn't
21:44that seem you know that seems a little odd did you know he was going to be leaving kind of
21:48him
21:49hawed a little bit around the question and at this point we had conducted interviews with mr cutler
21:55mr green some of the things just didn't sit right with the investigation cornelius gave philip cutler
22:02possession of his vehicle while he was out of town and then he refused consent for any officers to look
22:09inside of his vehicle also green wasn't telling the truth about being separated from his wife so they
22:17were certainly persons of interest but there were no arrests at that time
22:23but we had investigators continued reviewing the evidence reviewing reports and video footage from
22:29the interviews with mr cutler mr green that's when we observed something that was extremely strange
22:37that occurred while mr cutler was alone in the interview room he's pacing back and forth and then
22:43much to our astonishment he thumbs through a notepad tears out a single sheet of paper and proceeds to
22:52chew it up and swallow it my immediate reaction was what in the heck there's no doubt in my mind
22:59that
22:59that piece of paper was a direct connection to him and the murder that just occurred
23:14during the interview you see philip cutler get a piece of paper with some writing on it and then
23:20goes to his mouth with it and it disappears it's very unusual what he does it was like he was
23:26trying to
23:27hide something possibly there's some indication of guilt there because of their behavior our
23:33investigation now is directed towards philip cutler and cornelia screen as suspects but we need evidence
23:40so one of the things that we do is we'll look for potential surveillance equipment throughout the
23:45neighborhood the entrance to jocelyn street where the apartments were located at a building that has some
23:53security footage running 24 7 on the perimeter i was able to reach out and go over surveillance footage
24:01we know that cornelia screen arrived over at the scene sometime around 3 20 the afternoon after the
24:07murder and he was driving his car so that gave us a starting point we backed up and went through
24:14probably
24:1412 to 15 hours of video surveillance of that intersection as we're looking at it
24:202 59 a.m on the night of the murder we see a vehicle turn onto jocelyn peters street from
24:27boyle
24:28and we later observe it leave the street around 348. it was a white kia and they were able to
24:34zoom in
24:35and we got three or four positive letters off the license plate it was indeed cornelia screen white kia
24:42optima we knew that cornelia screen was out of town and he had left the keys to his vehicle with
24:49philip
24:50cutler and we knew that those keys also contained a key to enter into that apartment complex and enter
24:56into mrs peter's apartment at this point it gave us a theory that philip cutler was the one that killed
25:04jocelyn peters
25:10i couldn't really process her untimely death
25:16but i had a funeral to plan principal nicole had called and she was like well you know what i'm
25:23going to call that day off for the kids so they'll be able to attend jocelyn's funeral
25:30there were kids that were really struggling so we really wanted to find a way to celebrate her life
25:37when i got to the funeral it was people already just standing there lying around the corner
25:45just to see her jocelyn's favorite color is yellow so at the funeral when the kids walked past me all
25:54the
25:54kids would hand me one yellow rose it was really hard i was constantly praying cornelia's did not attend
26:05her funeral it ran in the back of my mind while my daughter's dead he's not dead too that's what
26:11i wanted
26:12to know
26:15as we continued looking into cornelia screen and philip cutler trying to get as much evidence
26:22and a foundation laid there was tips that would come in one of those was this woman who came into
26:28the homicide office and stated that she saw on the news that this incident occurred and then she said
26:34she was involved with cornelia's for quite a while a couple years at least and recently learned he was
26:41juggling numerous romantic sexual relationships at the same time she said he was a womanizer and certainly
26:47it was another red flag for police at that point after interviewing her we'd received a call from
26:53cornelia screen he said he had heard out on the street that we were speaking to this woman who he
26:59was involved in a relationship with and he was irritated to say the least he then went on and asked
27:06what he could do to help us so we offered him the opportunity to provide his cellular telephone and
27:13oddly enough he allowed us to download it after receiving the data information we were able to
27:19obtain his text messaging and some of his google searches and on march 20th 2016 four days before
27:28the murder and prior to philip cutler coming into town he had a telephonic conversation with philip
27:34cutler he then reached out to miss peters via text during that conversation miss peters states that
27:42she's going to go to the aldi's and go grocery shopping and cornelia's states i will meet you
27:48there he seemed adamant that hey we'll go shopping together it just seemed you know rather odd she
27:54didn't seem like she was asking him to come with her to the grocery store we were able to obtain
28:00the
28:00video surveillance inside the aldi's and we observed jocelyn peters exiting the store with cornelia's
28:07green directly behind her pushing the cart and you could clearly see a 10-pound bag of russet potatoes
28:14sitting on there same brand that was found at the crime scene on the kitchen table with one missing
28:20which i don't believe it was just happenstance or coincidence now there's no doubt in our minds that
28:25that conversation he had with philip cutler on march 20th prior to going grocery shopping with miss peters
28:32was him making sure that there's some potatoes bought it becomes very apparent how much thought
28:38process he was putting into this before it happened it was kind of shocking she never saw this coming
28:45she is literally purchasing the tools that are going to be used in her own murder that's important
28:51because it did help us start to paint the picture and see what was happening just days prior to miss
28:57peters being murdered but it was circumstantial evidence and there was a tremendous amount of
29:04other obstacles to overcome first there was no murder weapon that was ever recovered and second
29:12cornelia screen has a alibi so we need to essentially prove he planned a way for mr cutler to come
29:20into town
29:21to kill jocelyn peters so next we obtained a search warrant and received the tracking history from
29:27philip cutler's telephone it showed philip cutler in the area of jocelyn peters apartment the night she
29:33was murdered and then it showed cutler traveling directly down to north riverfront park in the far
29:42north end of the city why this stood out to us is because north riverfront park borders the mississippi
29:48river cutler responded there after speaking with green and spent eight minutes there the morning
29:54after the murder we believe he discarded the murder weapon in the mississippi river the river was searched
30:02but unless you knew exactly where it was the chances of it still being there are slim so the murder
30:09weapon
30:09was never found it was a very difficult case to make that's why the detectives kept digging and digging
30:17while we were looking for something that proved that they both worked together and planned the way
30:22to kill miss peters we were able to identify some of the most prevalent google searches on green's phone
30:29prior to the murder of miss peters one of the first patterns we observed was that there were google
30:35searches about how to mask the taste of an abortion pill this was early on in the pregnancy
30:41just a few weeks and he had started googling can i crush up pills to end the pregnancy it strongly
30:50suggested that corneus green was trying to kill the baby without jocelyn peters knowledge i believe the
30:57baby that jocelyn peters was carrying became an obstacle and if he could get rid of the pregnancy
31:03then he could continue to have jocelyn peters as a toy to play with along with the other five or
31:08six women
31:09and continue to live life in exactly the way that he wanted to as we continued looking into his google
31:15searches it seemed that this apparently was not working one of green searches was still seeing a
31:21heartbeat after taking an abortion pill and all of these google searches happened several months prior to
31:27miss peters being murdered he obviously was searching for this method to get rid of the child and when
31:35that didn't work out it wasn't long after that cornelius decides to segue into the murder business
31:50we identified cornelius green researching abortion pills researching a ways to induce an abortion
31:58cornelius made some fairly sinister efforts to get rid of this pregnancy and when that didn't work he
32:06arrived at the conclusion that jocelyn peters was a liability that he needed to get rid of
32:13that starts to build the the motive and the means and the method of how this murder occurred we further
32:20investigated cornelius's cell phone data and on february 28th cornelius green and philip cutler
32:27had a conversation via text where green had said are you going to be coming into town cutler responds
32:34in the affirmative and asks when he says march 20th and cutler says okay don't forget to send the package
32:43when i read it i immediately thought there was something of value sent from green to mr cutler and i
32:51was
32:52able to reach out to the post office there's a record of a transaction where on march the 7th just
32:58days
32:58prior to the murder he sent a package to philip cutler in oklahoma which we police assume is the money
33:08to pay him to kill jocelyn peters this was obviously planning and premeditation on both green and color's
33:17part with relation to miss peter's murder but at this point green had obtained an attorney so we
33:24could not bring him in and speak with him again it was extremely challenging to keep moving forward
33:35but then we'd received a call from the dance instructor of car lane school where cornelius green
33:41was the principal we had learned approximately 2700 had been stolen from car lane school's dance
33:49program a few weeks prior to the murder of miss peters
33:55she said on march 3rd she observed cornelius green in the area where the money had been taken
34:02and believed that he was no doubt involved when asked about why it wasn't reported she stated that
34:10she was extremely concerned with repercussions because he wielded a certain amount of authority
34:16over the school being the principal we believe that 2700 was the payment cornelius green sent to
34:23philip cutler to kill jocelyn peters
34:28as you progress through the investigation the amount of circumstantial evidence that was obtained
34:35it gave us the timeline the motive and then the method of how this murder occurred there's no question
34:42that this was a elaborate premeditated plan to end jocelyn peters life and get rid of the baby
34:49that jocelyn peters was carrying
34:55in august of 2015 miss peters became pregnant then just a few weeks in the pregnancy cornelius green
35:03started searching ways to end the pregnancy
35:09cornelius spent months trying to poison or kill the baby when that didn't work on february 28th
35:15cornelius green arranges for philip cutler to be the trigger man on march the 3rd he stole money
35:22from car lane middle school on march 8th cornelius green sent phil cutler the money to murder jocelyn
35:32on march 14th through the 18th cornelius takes jocelyn and her family on a cruise for her birthday
35:40we believe he was trying to throw him off
35:43on march 20th cornelius green accompanied jocelyn peters to the grocery store where they purchased
35:50the russet potatoes and then he left them inside of the apartment for mr cutler on march 21st
35:58philip cutler travels from oklahoma to st louis missouri police believe the next day cornelius hands
36:05philip cutler his 38 caliber gun and the keys to jocelyn's apartment and then cornelius green takes an
36:13amtrak to chicago as an alibi for himself in the middle of the night philip cutler goes into jocelyn
36:21peters apartment used a potato as a silencer shoots her one time in the head and kills her and her
36:30unborn child next cornelius green takes an amtrak back to st louis as he's on the train cornelius
36:41starts calling jocelyn repeatedly was all just part of the ruse to make it look like he was concerned
36:47about her and then lastly cornelius green goes to her apartment and calls 9-1-1 to report the death
36:57of jocelyn peters
37:00the level of planning that went on for this case
37:04was shocking that's his girlfriend he's going to be the father of the child that she's carrying
37:10this was a cold-blooded terrific crime i don't know if cornelius green was a psychopath but he
37:17should be in the psychology textbooks because the cognitive sophistication that it would take
37:21to keep all of that separate you have to be adept at compartmentalizing your life at that point we
37:28knew that we needed to arrest both cutler and green for the murder of jocelyn peters and her unborn child
37:39at this point we have the abortion search history with green we have cutler's cell phone data that
37:47puts him at the location of the victim's residence we have the video surveillance of the vehicle
37:54that philip cutler was in possession of turning onto the victim street the night of the murder so we're
38:00able to secure indictments against mr cutler and mr green for a conspiracy to commit murder and
38:06committing murder for hire cornelius is arrested first obviously we wanted to get an opportunity
38:12to try and talk to him but he doesn't make any statements at that time and then we traveled into
38:18muskovia oklahoma and placed philip cutler under arrest to be transported back to st louis missouri
38:26i did our post-arrest interview he denied have anything to do with the murder of jocelyn peters
38:38when they called and uh told me they had arrested both of them i was pretty much in shock
38:46i thought cornelius was a good guy
38:51i was out to dinner with our school counselor and it came across the news that he was arrested
38:58and we just cried together that was a life-changing day because it had taken so many months and it
39:05finally had happened and it was just a rush of emotion i was glad that it finally happened but you
39:12know
39:13i just wanted my daughter my granddaughter back
39:21this is certainly a chilling crime a father and a principal at the school thought out a murder for
39:29hire plot but unfortunately the covid pandemic really threw a wrench into the criminal justice system
39:37eight years go by before we actually go to trial and prior to the trial date cornelius green accepted a
39:45plea to plead guilty cornelius agrees to life with no parole so the death penalty was off the table at
39:55this point but philip cutler takes it to a jury trial it was shocking that he wanted a trial given
40:03the
40:03mountain of evidence there was against him and how could you put this family through reliving all of this
40:15from the beginning of the trial there were members of jocelyn's family and friends and co-workers
40:23that were in the courtroom and there was really some outrage how dare you
40:29i had to be there i wanted to see him i wanted to look at him and i wanted him
40:36to know that i know
40:38what you did i was mad he shot my baby in the face right through the eye
40:46i just wanted to scream we look at this case and you see the troubling sophistication of it
40:55hey i'll go to the store and buy a sack of potatoes and the potatoes will be in the apartment
41:00then when
41:01you get there all you have to do is grab one and use it this was the most thought-out
41:09premeditated crime
41:11that i had covered and philip cutler any point in time along the way easily could have backed out
41:17and no one would have ever known and he just didn't philip cutler was found guilty and was
41:25sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison without parole for both the murder of jocelyn peters
41:34and her unborn child micah lee there was just this huge sense of relief he is going to pay for
41:41what he did
41:43there's a special place in hell for him the hole in my heart is still there it's not a day
41:57that i don't
41:59think about jocelyn i can be driving down the street and see something that reminds me of her
42:07she had a smile and a laugh that was contagious she was all about helping kids and the community so
42:16everybody in the family we don't mind giving a helping hand to people that that need it that's how we
42:23keep
42:24her memory alive
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