This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A federal grand jury on Thursday issued new perjury indictments against three men accused of lying during the investigation into the disappearance of Spanish Fork teenager Kiplyn Davis. The action corrects a technical error that was made when the term of the first grand jury probing what happened to the girl was extended twice, when it should have been extended only once. The mistake was discovered the day before the trial of defendant Timmy Brent Olsen, 28, was to begin on May 1 and forced the postponement of the proceeding. The charges in the three new indictments are identical to those in the originals. Kiplyn, a 15-year-old sophomore at Spanish Fork High School, disappeared May 2, 1995, and is presumed dead. In the spring of 2003, the stalled investigation was revived and a grand jury spent more than two years hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses. In 2005, grand jurors indicted five men, most of them former classmates of Kiplyn, on perjury charges. Two of them, Garry Von Blackmore, 26, and Scott Brunson, 29, have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. The other three are scheduled to go to trial, which made obtaining new indictments necessary. Olsen's trial on 16 counts of perjury is now slated to being on July 10. When that proceeding is over, he will be prosecuted by the Utah County Attorney's Office on a state charge of murder. If convicted, Olsen could get a life sentence. Separate perjury trials of David Rucker Leifson, 29, and Christopher Neal Jeppson, 29, are scheduled to begin later this year. Each perjury count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. - Pamela Manson

