Christopher Neal Jeppson's request for a new federal perjury trial in the Kiplyn Davis case was denied by a federal judge on Wednesday.

His sentencing on one count of perjury and three counts of making false statements is scheduled for Friday. Jeppson is also one of two men charged with the 15-year-old's murder in state court.

Scott C. Williams, Jeppson's attorney in both cases, argued in his motion that a new trial should be granted because potentially helpful evidence was withheld by the prosecution. Williams cited hundreds of pages of testimony from January's preliminary hearing in the murder case.

In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell said none of the newly discovered evidence has any bearing on the central questions of Jeppson's trial, which were whether he lied and whether his lies obstructed the investigation into Davis's disappearance.

"In fact, most of the evidence Mr. Jeppson describes has no conceivable bearing on those issues. Consequently, none of this newly discovered evidence forms the basis to order a new trial," Campbell wrote in her ruling.

Much of the evidence Williams submitted in his motion dealt with inconsistencies in the testimony and other statements made by people who were interviewed by investigators or the grand jury in the case.

"Our position was that we could've used it to cast doubt on the materiality element of the perjury count," Williams said.

Other evidence dealt with allegations by Williams that Jeanine Jeppson, the defendant's ex-wife who testified against him at trial, may have committed perjury during a custody hearing in state court.

Campbell ruled that the inconsistencies could possibly have been used by Williams to impeach the testimony of FBI Agent Mike Anderson, but the impeachment evidence does not warrant a new trial. And even if Jeanine Jeppson did perjure herself in the custody hearing, Campbell wrote, the statement was unrelated to her testimony against her ex-husband.

"We expressed our position in a lengthy memo, and the judge disagreed," Williams said. "That's common, but it's disappointing."

One of Jeppson's convictions was for lying to the grand jury when he said he never told his ex-wife or an ex-girlfriend that he was involved in Davis's disappearance. The other charges stemmed from statements Jeppson made about his whereabouts the day Davis disappeared and a visit he made to Davis's parents' house about a year later.

Williams said Jeppson's sentencing will go forward on Friday. If the fate of other defendants who were convicted of perjury in the Davis case is any indicator, he will be spending several years behind bars.

Timmy Brent Olsen, Jeppson's co-defendant in the murder case, was sentenced to 12 and one-half years in prison for 15 counts of perjury, and David Rucker Leifson was sentenced to four years on one count. Prosecutors have said they will seek a similarly harsh sentence for Jeppson.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has argued that the perjury committed by Jeppson, Olsen and Leifson obstructed a murder investigation, and prosecutors have asked for enhanced sentences on those grounds. Olsen lost an appeal of his sentence to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and Leifson is currently appealing his sentence.

Davis disappeared from Spanish Fork High School on May 2, 1995. She has not been seen since and her body has not been found.

A status conference in the murder case is scheduled for July 8.

• Jeremy Duda can be reached at 344-2561 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it