TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has overturned a woman’s convictions in the 2002 shooting deaths of her ex-husband and his fiancee.

Dana Chandler was convicted in 2012 of killing Michael Sisco and Karen Harkness in Topeka.

The court ruled Friday that Chandler was convicted after Shawnee County prosecutors falsely claimed that Sisco had taken out a protection from abuse order against her before the killings. The justices wrote prosecutors used that false claim and circumstantial evidence to support its theory that Chandler was dangerous.

Chandler consistently said that she did not kill the couple. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports no physical evidence linked Chandler, who lived in Denver at the time of the killings, to the crime.

Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay must decide whether to try Chandler again.

By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN

Arm wrestling over a final deal on Kansas school spending begins in earnest Friday after the Senate settled on a figure that’s much lower than the House’s position.

The bill squeaked through after hours of discussion, winning the last vote necessary only after leaders forced lawmakers who initially abstained to weigh in.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – Authorities have arrested a man suspected in two recent Springfield killings.

The Green County Sheriff’s Department says 24-year-old Willie Haughton was taken into custody around 2 a.m. Friday at a house just outside the Springfield city limits. The Springfield News-Leader reports that police identified Haughton as a suspect in the killings of Lance Loveless and Robert Hewitt.

The victims were both found in cars less than 2 miles apart. Hewitt died Sunday and Loveless on March 27. Court records show that just days early, on March 23, Haughton posted bond in a domestic assault case after a judge lowered his bond amount.

Documents show Haughton was outfitted with a tracking device, but the battery died a few days after his release. It wasn’t immediately known if Haughton has an attorney.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – A former state education employee who’s accused of patting a 12-year-old girl on the buttocks has been charged with a misdemeanor.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 64-year-old Steven Langhorst was charged Wednesday in St. Louis with fourth-degree assault. He doesn’t have a listed phone number.

He’s a former field director of charter schools for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, a job that involved providing guidance to the independently run and publicly funded schools. A department spokesman said only said that Langhorst is no longer an employee.

The probable cause statement says the girl reported to an administrator in February that she had just been touched inappropriately. The statement says it happened as she was walking through a hallway of the all-girls Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Avila University in Kansas City university is warning students about someone attempting to secretly record a woman inside a residence hall shower.

The Kansas City Star reports that Darby Gough, an Avila official, detailed how officials planned to add security in the dorms in an email sent Thursday to students. Gough wrote that additional cameras will be installed in Ridgway and Carondelet halls and campus safety officers will make additional rounds.

Steps are also being taken to better secure the women’s shower rooms, and surveillance footage is being analyzed.

The announcement came after campus safety officials told students last week in an email that someone had attempted to record a woman inside the Ridgeway Hall showers. And an email in December warned of someone trespassing in the same dorm.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A bill that would bar people convicted of domestic violence from owning guns is on its way to Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer.

The bill, approved 113-6 in the House on Thursday, also would make it illegal for people subject to protection from stalking and abuse orders, fugitives from justice and people in the country illegally to own or possess firearms.

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which advocates for tougher gun laws, had lobbied for the bill, which also had support from law enforcement groups.

Federal law already prohibits domestic abusers from possessing firearms for five years following conviction. The Kansas bill allows state prosecution of offenders. Supporters say that’s important because federal prosecutors rarely take up the cases.