JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A lawyer for a Missouri mother says a pawn shop was wrong to sell her mentally ill daughter a gun that was used in a fatal shooting.

Attorney Jonathan Lowy of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence told Supreme Court judges Wednesday that Odessa Gun & Pawn was negligent.

Pawn shop lawyer Derek MacKay says state and federal laws protect firearms dealers from such claims. Lowy also challenged the constitutionality of a federal gun commerce law.

Colby Sue Weathers fatally shot her father in 2012 on the same day she bought a gun. She is schizophrenic and later was committed to a state mental institution.

Weathers’ mother, Janet Delana of Wellington, had asked the pawn shop not to sell her daughter the gun.

Judges didn’t indicate when they’ll rule.

ROGERSVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri man has died from injuries he suffered in mid-November when he said he was attacked by a pack of dogs.

The Springfield News-Leader reports 85-year-old Werner Vogt of Rogersville died Friday at a hospital.

Vogt told officers he was attacked while bike riding on Nov. 12 in a heavily wooded area southeast of Rogersville in Christian County. A grandson found him barely conscious on the road.

Christian County Sheriff Brad Cole says he’s asked a wildlife expert in Florida to examine photos of Vogt’s “severe” wounds to determine what type of animals attacked Vogt.

Cole says no one has reported seeing any packs of dogs in the area where Vogt was attacked, and officers who canvassed the area did not find a pack of dogs.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of an inmate accused of attacking a prison caseworker with the worker’s own pepper spray — despite the prison’s destruction of both the spray and surveillance video of the attack before trial.

The appeals court said Tuesday there was no evidence authorities acted in bad faith in destroying the pepper spray canister or erasing the video.

The court noted that witness testimony backed authorities’ account and that the defense attorney didn’t properly object to state witness testimony.

Bradley Simmons was convicted earlier this year of second-degree assault of an officer and sentenced to three more years. He was already serving 50 years for attempted murder and other counts for the 2000 shooting an Omaha police officer during a botched bank robbery.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Muslim student at the University of Missouri has filed a lawsuit alleging that a biology professor directed a slew of sexually suggestive and religiously offensive remarks at her.

Fatma El-Walid claims in the lawsuit filed Nov. 30 that professor Michael Garcia asked El-Walid if her parents had waterboarded her “as a child in preparation for the future.”

The lawsuit also claims that he wanted to know if her faith made her hate gay people and Jews. Garcia’s lawyer says his client “vehemently” denies the claims.

El-Walid is seeking more than $25,000 in damages and wants the school to discipline Garcia.

University of Missouri spokesman Christian Basi said the school was aware of the lawsuit, but declined to comment specifically about Garcia.

MARSHFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A former southwest Missouri teacher has been sentenced to seven years in prison for having sexual contact with a student but could be released in 120 days.

Johnna Feazell was sentenced Monday in Webster County for statutory sodomy, sexual contact with a student, tampering with physical evidence and tampering with a witness.

Missouri attorney general’s office spokeswoman Nanci Gonder says placement in the Missouri Department of Corrections’ sex offender assessment unit means Feazell could be released, on probation, after 120 days if she does well in the program. Feazell also has to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.

Feazell was an 8th-grade teacher and coach in Marshfield until last fall. She has agreed to surrender her teaching certificate.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Missouri State University has hired an investigator to conduct an independent review of allegations of racist treatment directed at the school’s vice president of diversity and inclusion.

The university’s Board of Governors Chair Stephen Hoven announced Monday there would be an investigation of the treatment of Ken Coopwood, the university’s first black vice president.

An online petition claims Coopwood has been the victim of hostile behavior by his own staff and has been discriminated against by the administration. The petition, which was started by local business owner Du’Sean Howard, was submitted Thursday to the school board.

Howard says the allegations are based on several conversations with Coopwood. Coopwood declined the newspaper’s interview request but said in an email that he was thankful for petitioners’ support.

School officials hope to have the investigation completed by Dec. 30.

ANDERSON, Mo. (AP) — The wife of a southwest Missouri deputy is charged with shooting her husband in the head.

Forty-two-year-old Patricia M. Halverson is charged in McDonald County with first-degree attempted murder and armed criminal action for the Dec. 1 shooting of 69-year-old Al C. “Doc” Halverson.

The McDonald County sheriff’s deputy is no longer hospitalized. Prosecutor Bill Dobbs says Patricia Halverson initially reported that her husband had a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

But Dobbs says a thorough investigation didn’t support her claim. The probable cause statement says medical personnel told authorities that the wound didn’t appear to be self-inflicted. Doc Halverson also told authorities he didn’t shoot himself.

Patricia Halverson’s attorney, Duane Cooper, didn’t immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press seeking comment.

VIENNA, Mo. (AP) — A central Missouri woman accused in her daughter’s fatal overdose death has pleaded guilty to two counts of child endangerment.

Forty-nine-year-old Starletta Blevins of Dixon entered the plea Monday in Maries County. Second-degree murder and distribution of a controlled substance charges are still pending.

Blevin’s daughter, 16-year-old Kaylynn Moore, was found dead in her bed of an overdose on Christmas Eve last year.

Authorities say this was isn’t the first fatal overdose in the family. A 15-year-old sister of Kaylynn’s had died in April of 2003 with similar symptoms.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Attorneys for two Missouri death row inmates are suggesting reviving the gas chamber as an alternative method of execution. The inmates, Russell Bucklew and Ernest L. Johnson, argue in court appeals that medical conditions they suffer from would cause painful reactions to the chemicals used in lethal injections.

The law requires the men’s attorneys to offer an alternative method for execution.

Their lawyers have proposed the gas chamber, even though the state no longer has a working gas chamber. Bucklew’s attorney has also raised a possible second alternative — the firing squad.

Bucklew is on death row for the 1996 killing of a man in southeast Missouri. Johnson was sentenced to death for killing three people during a 1994 store robbery in Columbia.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback says he favors an audit of the state’s foster care and adoption programs.

The governor made the comments Tuesday amid criticism that the Department of Children and Families discriminates against same-sex couples in adoptions and foster care.

Brownback disagreed with calls for Phyllis Gilmore to be removed as head of the DCF, saying Gilmore has strong experience and the background for the job.

Several same-sex couples have said recently that the DCF treated them unfairly, including removing children from lesbian foster parents who wanted to adopt.

Brownback says the state’s placement policy focuses on the best interest of the child. He also said federal and state laws favor keeping siblings together and placing children with relatives when possible.