Sentencing for a perjury suspect in the Kiplyn Davis disappearance has been continued until the beginning of next year to give the man a chance to testify against a former high school friend, who is expected to stand trial for Davis' murder.
Scott Brunson appeared in U.S. District Court on Wednesday and agreed to postpone his sentencing on perjury until Jan. 17, 2008, to allow him time to testify against murder suspect Timmy Brent Olsen.
Brunson, along with four other men, was indicted on charges of lying to a federal grand jury and an FBI agent about what they knew regarding Davis' disappearance.
Davis, 15, vanished over the lunch break at Spanish Fork High School on May 2, 1995, and has not been seen since. Investigators believe Davis was taken up Spanish Fork Canyon, where she was raped, killed and buried in an unmarked grave.
Olsen was the first to go to trial and was convicted on all 15 counts of perjury. He was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison. Former friends testified that Olsen, on numerous occasions, bragged about killing Davis and implicated co-defendant David Rucker Leifson as being at the murder scene also. Leifson has denied the allegations.
Christopher Neal Jeppson and Brunson were accused of creating conflicting false alibis for Olsen, explaining where he was on the day of Davis' disappearance. In a plea deal, Brunson testified that he lied to police about Olsen helping him roof a shed on May 2, 1995. Brunson is expected to testify again in the murder trial.
Jeppson has denied lying to police when he told them that he, Olsen and Leifson were at the school's auditorium setting up for a play and throwing a football on May 2, 1995. However, school officials say there was no play scheduled, and at the time, a community choir was practicing in the same room. None of its members recall seeing the three there.
Another perjury suspect, Garry Von Blackmore, has also struck a plea deal. He has testified against Olsen in the perjury case and is expected to testify in the murder trial.
Olsen's murder trial has met with delays, and federal prosecutors say it may take place next winter.
Perjury trials for Jeppson and Leifson have been scheduled for Sept. 4 and Nov. 5, respectively.
E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com