A convicted felon suspected of killing a Cal State Los Angeles professor he worked with in 2001-02 lied on his employment application to the school, saying he had no criminal convictions, officials said Wednesday.

The Jan. 12, 2001, employment application filed by Mark Stephen Guerrero, 38, stated he had no prior convictions, said Dave McNutt, executive director of public affairs for Cal State L.A.

Cal State L.A. employment applications ask people to list convictions, but a criminal past does not automatically bar them from employment.

No background check was made on Guerrero and such checks are not routinely done by campus officials, McNutt said.

''Do you know how many people make applications? It's not our policy to do background checks,'' he said.

Other college officials said hiring Guerrero -- and others like him -- is allowed because of state law.

The California Education Code allows state colleges to employ convicts in nonteaching positions unless they are ''sexual psychopaths.''

Professor Glenda Vittimberga, 37, was found stabbed and beheaded in her Pasadena home early Monday morning after police responded to a call from Guerrero's sister. She told them Guerrero called her, warning that something might be wrong at Vittimberga's house, police said.

The same morning, Guerrero committed suicide by stepping in front of a tractor-trailer truck on Interstate 15, police said.

The motive for the slaying is still under investigation. The relationship between Vittimberga and Guerrero is unclear.

Police believe blood found in Guerrero's car may prove to be Vittimberga's.

Guerrero, who was a graduate student at Cal State L.A., worked with Vittimberga on campus from winter 2001 until Sept. 9, 2002, despite his violent criminal past, said university spokeswoman Carol Selkin.

''He was a paid graduate assistant in the diagnostic resource center, which is run by the division of administration. Glenda was the professor in charge of diagnostic resource center,'' Selkin said.

Guerrero, who was known to use aliases, served one year in a state prison camp after an October 1996 conviction of nine criminal counts including attempted murder, assault and battery on a police officer and other counts, said Jane Robison of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Each university makes its own determination as to whether a convict should be hired, said Clara Potes-Fellow, a spokeswoman for the California State University system's Chancellor's Office.

''They are autonomous on making decisions for hiring graduate assistants. Such decisions are made on individual campuses,'' Fellow said.