ST. LOUIS (AP) — Two men are in custody after a stray bullet struck a 12-year-old girl while she was playing in a St. Louis park.
The girl was injured Sunday night at Loretta Hall Park. The suspects were arrested Tuesday, both at the same apartment in St. Louis County. Charges have not been filed.
Police say the two men were arguing and fired several shots before running off. One of the stray bullets struck the girl in the hand.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A 33-year-old Hutchinson man admits that he raped a 12-year-old child.
William Howard Diggs III pleaded guilty Tuesday to raping the child in a plea deal that could result in a lesser sentence.
Diggs was arrested in May on suspicion of rape and indecent liberties with a child.
Both charges could bring life sentences without the possibility of parole for 25 years.
Under the plea deal, Diggs is expected to be sentenced to nearly 16 years in prison, although the judge is not obligated to agree to the deal when Diggs is sentenced Sept. 27.
Prosecutors say the child was raped in February or March of 2013 at a Hutchinson home after the victim’s parents invited Diggs to the home.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri students showed mixed results on the most recent standardized achievement tests.
Test scores for specific school districts are to be released later.
Statewide data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education show the percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced in math declined in 2013, but remained steady in communication arts and improved in science.
The Missouri Assessment Program tests are administered annually and are used as part of the state accreditation process for public schools.
State Board of Education Chairman Peter Herschend says the scores show that Missouri schools are not making as much progress as he would like.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Livingston County Sheriff Steve Cox says his investigation of a former suspect in a Chillicothe woman’s 1990 shooting death shows “plenty of probable cause to make an arrest.”
Newly released investigative records claim Brandon Hagan told a California commodities investor with whom he was arguing that “he got away with murder and was not scared to do it again.”
Cathy Robertson’s neighbor Mark Woodworth was twice convicted and faces a possible third murder trial, even though the Supreme Court vacated the most recent conviction.
Hagan did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
Cox says he can’t press charges against Hagan until Woodworth’s case is resolved. Hagan was the ex-boyfriend of the victim’s oldest daughter. He was initially suspected in the killing but insisted he was elsewhere at the time.
JENNINGS, Mo. (AP) — A man is hospitalized after crashing his car into a St. Louis County home, apparently after shooting himself.
It happened Monday night in Jennings. Authorities said the man shot himself, then crashed into the garage of a home.
The man’s condition was not immediately known. He initially told police that someone shot him in the leg near a grocery store. He later admitted that he shot himself.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — A guard at a state prison in St. Joseph has pleaded guilty to intending to distribute drugs at the prison.
Fifty-year-old Debora Allen, a guard at the Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center, told a judge Monday that she smuggled methamphetamine and marijuana into the prison after she was threatened by a white supremacist group. She says the men also offered her $300 but didn’t pay her anything.
Allen was caught trying to smuggle the drugs in her sports bra.
Rebecca Thomas, an assistant Buchanan County prosecutor, said the state believed other factors, including some possible relationships, were factors in Allen’s actions.
Allen will sentenced Sept. 30.
Michael Creswell, 43, is jailed in Stone County on $100,000 bond. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.
The probable cause statement says the former fire marshal for the Southern Stone County Fire Protection District told the trainee that she had to have sex with him to complete her training. The woman told authorities she had sex with Creswell at her house. But she said that when she told him to stop, he didn’t.
The woman says Creswell also groped her and made sexual comments. She quit going to training classes because she did not want to be around Creswell.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two siblings have sued a Kansas City funeral home that closed two years ago after the state revoked its license for improperly storing bodies and giving a man the wrong ashes.
The suit filed this week in Jackson County Circuit Court accuses Marts Memorial Services and the couple that ran it of misconduct, fraud and misrepresentation.
It was filed on behalf of Matt and Morgan Miller, whose father, Kenneth Miller, died in February 2011. The suit alleges that there’s no way to determine whether the ashes the siblings received were those of their father. The suit also alleged that there was an 11-day delay in sending his body to a crematorium.
Salvatore Mirabile, a lawyer for the funeral home’s operators, didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Bruce Jenner, former Olympic decathlon champ and reality television star, is racing this weekend at the Kansas Speedway.
Jenner is racing with his 34-year-old son Burt Jenner in the SFP Grand Prix on the road course at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. They’re co-driving in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo class.
Jenner, now 63, won the gold medal in the decathlon in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, setting a then-world record with 8,616 points. He may be better known now, however, for the TV reality show, “Keeping up with the Kardashians,” which chronicles the life of Jenner’s extended family.
Yahoo Sports quotes Jenner saying the closest he’s ever come to passing out was not after running, but when he climbed from a hot race car.
“Actually, the closest I ever came to passing out was at Mid-Ohio one year. We didn’t have a cool suit, it was hot. The engine’s up front and an enormous amount of heat comes off that engine,” Jenner said.
“I got out of that car and I thought I wasn’t going to make it. I was just cooking. And I had to lay down. I never had to do that running.”
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The medical director for the Iowa Department of Public Health is warning against the tapeworm diet.
In her weekly email to public health workers around Iowa, Dr. Patricia Quinlisk recounted a recent incident:
A physician sought the department’s help for a patient who said she’d swallowed a tapeworm she’d bought over the Internet. The woman was hoping the parasite would help her lose weight.
Quinlisk says hucksters sold tapeworm eggs in pill form as a weight-loss aid a century ago. She says ingesting them “is extremely risky and can cause a wide range of undesirable side effects, including rare deaths.”
Tapeworms can live for years in the intestines and grow to several feet long. They can be accidentally ingested in undercooked meat.
An anti-worm medication was advised for the woman.
