Even after 12 years since his daughter vanished and countless hours of attending court hearings, Richard Davis tears up when he talks about trying to bring his daughter home.
"Our goal is to just bring Kiplyn home to us," he said on the steps of the federal courthouse in Salt Lake City. "This has been a wonderful day for Kiplyn."
Inside court on Monday, members of Davis' family watched as the last of five men charged with lying to a federal grand jury about the teen's disappearance pleaded guilty to perjury.
David Rucker Leifson appeared in U.S. District Court with his attorney to enter a plea of guilty to one count of perjury as part of a plea bargain reached with federal prosecutors one week before he was scheduled to stand trial on the charges. In exchange, federal prosecutors agreed they will dismiss five other counts of perjury.
In court, Leifson admitted he lied to the grand jury in 2004 when questioned about the disappearance of 15-year-old Davis, who vanished from Spanish Fork High School on May 2, 1995.
Police believe Davis was taken up Spanish Fork Canyon where she was raped, murdered and buried.
Specifically, Leifson admitted to lying when he denied having two heated arguments with suspect Timmy Brent Olsen, furious that Olsen had told others that Leifson was behind Davis' disappearance. According to the indictment against Leifson, two people were witness to both confrontations and a third witness recorded Leifson admitting to having the arguments while wearing a concealed wire.
During the perjury trial of Timmy Brent Olsen in July of last year, Olsen's former girlfriend Amber Payne testified that while she and Olsen were "dragging" Main Street in Spanish Fork in the summer of 1996, an angry Leifson forced their car off the road. Leifson walked up to their car and told Olsen to stop telling people that he was involved in Davis' murder and disappearance and that he "better keep his mouth shut," Payne testified.
A federal jury found Olsen guilty of perjury, and he was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison last year. Olsen now faces trial in Davis' slaying in state court.
Last September, a federal jury also found Christopher Neal Jeppson guilty of perjury. Jeppson is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 9. Earlier this month, state prosecutors also charged Jeppson with Davis' murder. Now both he and Olsen face trial in state court.
Leifson joins two other men, Scott Brunson and Garry Von Blackmore, who have accepted plea deals. Brunson and Blackmore have agreed to testify in the state trials.
Leifson's attorney, Ed Brass, said his client did not agree to testify as part of his plea agreement.
Although five men have been found guilty of lying in the Davis case, no one has yet come forward with solid information about where Davis may be buried or what exactly happened to her.
U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman issued another plea for people to come forward with information on what happened to Davis. "Time is running out," Tolman warned those who have been charged, as well as their friends and family. "We're not finished; there's a lot that has to be done."
Tolman said investigators have received several accounts of what happened to Davis and where she is buried, but all of them are too "vague and generic" to prove useful.
When sentenced on Jan. 9, Leifson faces up to five years in federal prison.
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