ST. LOUIS – A former St. Louis middle school principal appeared in federal court on Tuesday to be sentenced for paying a friend to kill his pregnant girlfriend in 2016.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said Cornelius M. Green, 42, pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and acting upon a murder-for-hire in the death of Jocelyn Peters. A U.S. District Court judge sentenced Green to two consecutive life sentences.

Phillip J. Cutler, 46, the man Green hired to kill Peters, was convicted in March on the same charges and sentenced on June 18 to two consecutive life sentences.

Peters was found shot to death inside her Central West End apartment on March 24, 2016. Peters, 30, was seven months pregnant at the time of her murder. She taught third grade at Horace Mann Elementary School in the Tower Grove neighborhood of south St. Louis.

Federal prosecutors reported that Green had sexual relationships with other women in a sentencing memo. He was also researching ways to secretly end Peters’ pregnancy. When that didn’t work, Green contacted Cutler, his longtime friend.

On March 7, 2016, Green sent a UPS package to Cutler containing $2,500 as a retainer for the crime. Green, who was principal at Carr Lane Middle School at the time, used cash stolen from the school to pay for the murder.

Cutler arrived in town and Green fled to Chicago to establish an alibi on March 21. Three days later, Cutler went inside Peters’ apartment and shot her in the eye, using a potato as a silencer.

Peters was working on baby shower invitations when she was killed.

When Cutler confirmed to Green that both Peters and the unborn baby were dead, Green bought a train ticket and returned to St. Louis. Cutler traveled to North River Front Park to dispose of any evidence.

Green called the police when he arrived back at the apartment and reported Peters’ death. Prosecutors said he made several false statements to law enforcement, claiming he had no prior involvement or knowledge of the murder.

When Cutler was told he was being detained that same night, he ate two pieces of paper from a notebook in his pockets.

The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office previously charged Green with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action, and burglary, and said they would seek the death penalty in his case. Green pleaded guilty in federal court to avoid a death penalty trial in St. Louis Circuit Court. According to the plea agreement, the Circuit Attorney’s Office would dismiss its charges against Green if he’s sentenced to life imprisonment on each count in the federal case.