VALLEY CITY, N.D. (AP) - Valley City State University officials say they expected a full criminal background check on Moe Maurice Gibbs before hiring him as a night security guard, but found out later that only a local background check was done.

Gibbs, 34, has been charged with the Sept. 13 killing of Mindy Morgenstern, 22, of New Salem. He worked as a Barnes County jailer and worked at Valley City State from Feb. 24 to mid-April.

Before moving to North Dakota, when he was known as Glen Dale Morgan Jr., Gibbs served 5½ years of a 10-year sentence for a 1992 attempted premeditated murder charge brought in military court. Military officials said Gibbs was a naval inmate at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., from January 1994 until April 1998.

The Valley City Police Department conducted a local record check on Gibbs for the university, searching city police records, said Police Chief Dean Ross.

The search came back clean, according to a notation on the bottom of a background authorization form signed by Gibbs on Jan. 23, when he applied for a custodial position. The search also was used when he was hired as a security guard, said Doug Anderson, the university's director of communication.

The university thought it had received a full criminal background check on Gibbs, Anderson said. He was unsure why only a local background check was done.

Anderson said the university has only had a handful of record searches done, mainly for people who would have broad access to buildings on campus.

Ross said the Police Department does a more extensive background search when it hires police officers or dispatch workers.

"We actually go into the communities of the people we're hiring," Ross said.

The Barnes County Sheriff's Department, which oversees the jail, has refused to comment on its hiring procedures. State's Attorney Brad Cruff also declined to comment.

There is no statewide hiring policy for county jails, said Steve Engen, the training director at the North Dakota Department of Corrections.

Gibbs authorized a background check into Washington, California, Texas and North Dakota when he applied for the jailer position, according to his personnel file.

When a person is hired, fingerprints are taken and submitted to the FBI, which would then inform the county of any other records, Cass County Jail Administrator Glenn Ellingsberg said.

He said the national search includes criminal, civil, financial and military records, and personal information.

"Anything that would go to the honesty and integrity of the person we would look at," Ellingsberg said.

Traill County Sheriff Mike Crocker said his county conducts a similar national background search when it hires dispatchers, correctional officers or deputies.

"We check them even if we've known them for 10, 15 years," he said.

"We not only check the references when we go talk to somebody - we get other names to talk to," he said.

A criminal history check was run on Gibbs when he was booked at the Cass County Jail, which came up with his former name, Glen Dale Morgan Jr., as an alias, Ellingsberg said.

Gibbs was granted a name change in August 2005 in Cass County.

North Dakota law does not require a background check on a name change, said Cass County District Judge Georgia Dawson.

Gibbs was among local law enforcement officials who were honored at a Sept. 11 breakfast in Valley City. He was photographed along with Ross and Barnes County Sheriff Randy McClaflin.

Gibbs, who is jailed in Fargo without bail, faces an Oct. 17 preliminary hearing in Valley City on the murder charge in Morgenstern's death.

Fargo police also say the state crime lab had matched DNA from a 2004 rape with Gibbs' DNA. Police said the evidence was turned over to the county state's attorney office for review.