CBS ‘48 Hours’ to spotlight St. Louis teacher Jocelyn Peters’ murder-for-hire case and convictions

A nationally televised true-crime episode is revisiting a St. Louis homicide that ended with two life sentences

The murder-for-hire killing of St. Louis educator Jocelyn Peters—who was pregnant at the time of her death—will be the subject of an upcoming episode of CBS’ “48 Hours,” as the long-running newsmagazine examines a case that moved through years of investigation, federal prosecution and sentencing.

Program listings identify the episode as “Jocelyn Peters and the Notebook,” scheduled to air in the early hours of March 15, 2026. The broadcast revisits a 2016 shooting that investigators said was planned as a murder-for-hire scheme involving Peters’ then-boyfriend, former St. Louis school administrator Cornelius M. Green, and an associate, Phillip Cutler of Muskogee, Oklahoma.

What happened in 2016

Peters, 30, worked as a St. Louis public school teacher. Federal prosecutors said she was killed on March 24, 2016, and that her unborn child—later identified in court records as Micah Leigh—also died as a result. Authorities said the plot included surveillance and coordination between Green and Cutler in the weeks leading up to the killing.

• Prosecutors said Green and Cutler planned the killing through a series of communications.
• Federal filings described a cash payment of $2,500 sent to Cutler shortly before the homicide.
• Investigators said Green later contacted emergency dispatch to report the death.

How the case was prosecuted

The investigation involved the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI, with the case ultimately pursued in federal court as a murder-for-hire prosecution. Court records show the proceedings unfolded on separate tracks for the two defendants, culminating in a conviction for Cutler and a guilty plea and sentencing for Green.

In March 2024, a federal jury found Cutler guilty of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and murder-for-hire in the deaths of Peters and her unborn child. The following months brought resolution for Green’s case: on June 25, 2024, a federal judge sentenced Green to two consecutive life terms in prison.

The sentencing marked the end of the federal case against Green and formalized the court’s findings that the deaths resulted from a paid murder-for-hire plan.

Why the “48 Hours” episode matters now

While the underlying homicide occurred nearly a decade ago, the case has continued to draw attention because it combined an alleged workplace connection, an intimate relationship, and a murder-for-hire allegation that prosecutors argued was carried out to end a pregnancy. The episode arrives after the principal federal milestones—trial, conviction, plea and sentencing—have already been completed, allowing the program to address the case with the benefit of court-tested evidence and final judgments.

The broadcast is expected to focus on the investigation and the prosecution narrative presented in federal court, including how authorities built the case, how the two defendants were linked to the crime, and how the legal process concluded with life sentences.