Timmy Brent Olsen pleads guilty in Kiplyn Davis case
Timmy Brent Olsen has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 1995 disappearance of Kiplyn Davis, saying he was present when someone else killed the 15-year-old girl.
Olsen pleaded guilty Friday morning to a second-degree felony charge of manslaughter. He was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison, to be served concurrently with the federal perjury sentence he is currently serving.
Davis disappeared from Spanish Fork High School on May 2, 1995.
The Davis family is relieved by Olsen’s plea. Davis’s father Richard said that hearing someone finally take responsibility for his daughter’s death was a huge victory and something the family had been wanting for years.
“It’s like somebody taking a big load off of us,” he said. “It was just like a heavy load was lifted off our shoulders.”
Attorney Mariane O’Bryant said prosecutors agreed to the plea deal because they were facing a difficult case in which they still have not located Davis’s body. O’Bryant added that she hoped the resolution would bring some closure to Davis’s family.
“We thought it was important for Timmy to say the word guilty,” O’Bryant said.
Defense attorney Carolyn E. Howard said the possibility of having his sentences run concurrently was very attractive to Olsen as he considered the plea. She also explained that the plea resulted from Olsen’s desire to end litigation in the case.
“We had been fully prepared to go to trial and expected to go forward,” Howard said, “and Timmy just had a change of heart.”
O’Bryant said defense lawyers presented a factual basis during the hearing in which Olsen stated that he, Davis and a third person visited Spanish Fork Canyon on the day Davis disappeared. O’Bryant said that Olsen admitted to seeing the third person hit Davis twice in the head with a rock after some sort of conflict. According to the factual basis, O’Bryant said, Olsen and the other individual hid Davis’s body before returning later in the evening to put it into a truck.
No murder or manslaughter charges have been filed against the person who Olsen said hit Davis with the rock; Olsen has not specifically named that person. However, O’Bryant said that she and others associated with the case believe it is David Rucker Leifson, who along with Olsen pleaded guilty to federal perjury charges stemming from the investigation into Kiplyn’s disappearance.
But O’Bryant added that even if Leifson was named it would be difficult to file charges against him related to Davis’s death.
“The problem with Timmy is he is a convicted perjurer,” O’Bryant said. “He’s not a reliable witness.”
O’Bryant explained that Olsen or someone else would have to provide information leading to new evidence in order to have a case against Leifson. He is currently in federal prison as a result of his perjury conviction.
During Olsen’s sentencing on Friday, Richard Davis implored him to help the family find Kiplyn’s body. Richard said afterward that he offered Olsen help in exchange for information and told him that he shouldn’t face his punishment alone.
“It just told him that I would do anything I could to help him out if he just told me where she is,” Davis said. “I told him I was on his side. I wanted to help him. If he’ll help me I’ll help him. I said he shouldn’t go down this road alone.”
Howard, who was not present at Friday’s hearing, said she believes Olsen has already told prosecutors everything he knows about the whereabouts of Davis’s body.
“In my opinion Timmy had given all of the knowledge he has to the prosecutor,” Howard said. “He was truthful about the spot he remembered.”
Howard said investigators have looked in the area Olsen described but did not locate Davis’s remains.
However, Richard Davis believes Olsen has more information to offer and said that he is still committed to bringing his daughter home.
“I said ‘We appreciate you coming forward and pleading guilty,'” Richard said. “But it’s just not enough. I still want Kiplyn’s body. I want Kiplyn back.”
O’Bryant said that investigators are still trying to find Kiplyn’s body and continue to follow any leads they receive.
During the hearing on Friday the judge gave Olsen credit for time served since October 2007.
Christopher Neal Jeppson was also charged with Davis’s murder but pleaded no contest to an obstruction of justice charge in connection with her disappearance. In exchange for Jeppson’s plea, prosecutors agreed to recommend a zero-to-five-year sentence concurrent with Jeppson’s five-year perjury sentence in federal court.
Like Olsen and Leifson, Jeppson was convicted in federal court of perjury for lying to investigators and a grand jury that convened to investigate Davis’s disappearance and probable murder.
Scott Brunson and Garry Blackmore also pleaded guilty to federal perjury charges stemming from the investigation into Kiplyn’s disappearance. Neither of them were charged with murder.
