State briefs

Police investigate beating death

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis County police are investigating a deadly baseball bat attack. A police spokesman says the unidentified male victim was found about 10 a.m. Thursday in a strip mall parking lot in the 7500 block of South Lindbergh Boulevard in St. Louis County. The incident began inside a Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education office, but it's not clear whether the victim works for the agency. Authorities have taken one man is in custody and say the victim and suspect knew each other. The suspect reportedly hit the victim repeatedly in the head with a metal bat until bystanders intervened. Police say the suspect then dropped the bat, sat next to the victim and waited for officers to arrive.

Man pleads guilty to selling false IDs

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Mexican national living in Missouri has pleaded guilty in a conspiracy to sell thousands of fake identifications to people who are in the U.S. illegally. The U.S. attorney's office says 39-year-old Eriberto Moises Medina-Aranda of Rayville pleaded guilty Thursday. Prosecutors say Medina-Aranda helped produce false Social Security cards, Lawful Permanent Resident cards and false driver's licenses from various states in the U.S. as well as Mexican states from September 2013 to February. Several street dealers then sold the fake identification documents. He faces up to 25 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $500,000.

Police oversight plan submitted

ST. LOUIS -- Elected officials in St. Louis will soon consider a proposal to create a civilian police oversight board. Mayor Francis Slay and the city's police unions opposed the most recent attempt at civilian oversight in 2006. But with the renewed focus on law enforcement use of force after the Michael Brown shooting and two other police killings in St. Louis, Slay on Thursday announced a compromise with Alderman Terry Kennedy, the bill's sponsor. The proposal calls for seven city residents appointed by the mayor and approved by the board of aldermen to serve on a new civilian oversight board. The panel would review misconduct complaints against St. Louis police officers.

3 hospitalized after school gas leak

ST. LOUIS -- A carbon monoxide leak at a St. Louis elementary school has sent two students and one adult to the hospital. KMOV-TV reported Earl Nance Sr. Elementary School in north St. Louis was evacuated Thursday morning after the gas leak. Fire officials say several students reported feeling ill or lightheaded. Work crews ventilated the school.

Couple sentenced in $1 million scheme

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas City couple will serve nine years in federal prison without parole for a scheme that targeted financially struggling clients. Federal prosecutors announced Thursday 43-year-old John Lee Norris and 39-year-old Julie Tina Hatcher defrauded 81 clients. They were each ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution. Norris and Hatcher pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to defraud debtors, the victims' lenders and the federal government between August 2010 and June 2013.

-- From wire reports