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Years after teenager Kiplyn Davis was last seen, one of her Spanish Fork High School classmates was sentenced to a prison term for lying to investigators who were trying to find out what happened to the girl.
U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell on Friday ordered Christopher Neal Jeppson to spend the next five years behind bars. She ruled that Jeppson's lies related to the kidnapping and murder of Kiplyn, which called for a serious sentence.
The 31-year-old, who had been free pending resolution of the case, was immediately taken into custody by federal marshals as several of his supporters cried. He still faces a trial in Utah's 4th District Court on a charge that he murdered Kiplyn, a fellow member of the drama group at Spanish Fork High.
Defense attorney Scott Williams - who cited celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart's five-month sentence for lying about a stock sale in arguing for more lenient punishment - said he probably will appeal Jeppson's sentence.
But Eric Benson, an assistant U.S. attorney, said Jeppson's falsehood involved a far more serious matter than Stewart's.
"This case has been a nightmare for the Davis family," Benson told the judge. "This isn't just any perjury, it's perjury related to the murder of a 15-year-old girl."
Jeppson for years insisted that he was hanging lights in the high school auditorium for almost 12 hours on the day in 1995 that Kiplyn vanished.
Federal prosecutors alleged he was lying about his whereabouts, a lie they claim created a false alibi for Jeppson and two others, Timmy Brent Olsen and David Rucker Leifson. In addition, they accused Jeppson of lying when he denied saying, even as a joke, that he was involved in Kiplyn's disappearance.
At a September trial, a defense attorney argued that any inconsistencies in Jeppson's statements were caused by memory lapses and the passage of time. Jurors, though, convicted him of one count of perjury for lying to a federal grand jury and three counts of making false statements to FBI agents.
Jeppson is the third man in the case to be sentenced to federal prison; Olsen and Leifson already are serving time for impeding the probe into Kiplyn's fate with their lies. Olsen also is charged with murdering the girl, and he and Jeppson could be sentenced up to life in state prison if convicted.
Richard Davis, Kiplyn's father, said outside court that Jeppson deserved his punishment. He pleaded for someone to reveal the location of his daughter's body.
"We want to bring her home," Davis said.
* Kiplyn Davis, a 15-year-old sophomore at Spanish Fork High School, disappeared after her lunch break May 2, 1995. She has not been found and is presumed murdered.
* Five men were indicted in 2005 on federal charges that they lied during the probe into her disappearance. Three - David Rucker Leifson, now 31; Garry Von Blackmore, 28; and Scott Brunson, 31 - pleaded guilty. Timmy Brent Olsen, 30, and Christopher Neal Jeppson, 31, were convicted of perjury in separate trials.
* Jeppson was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for one count of perjury and three counts of making false statements.
* Olsen was given a 12 1/2 -year term for 15 counts of perjury, and Leifson received four years in prison for one count of perjury. The others have not been sentenced. Jeppson and Olsen are awaiting trial in state court for Kiplyn's murder.