Leifson gets four years in prison for perjury in Kiplyn Davis case

Having concluded that his lie to a federal grand jury impeded the investigation into the disappearance and murder of Kiplyn Davis, a federal judge on Tuesday sentenced David Rucker Leifson to four years in federal prison.

Leifson's mother broke down in tears in court as U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell read the sentence aloud, saying there was a need to send a message that lying in the judicial process should not be tolerated.

"If there was any need for deterrence it is here," Campbell said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlos Esqueda said people who keep the truth from the justice system are preventing justice. "When people lie, it prevents us from investigating," he said.

Specifically, Esqueda said Leifson's lie before a federal grand jury about a heated argument he had with perjury co-defendant Timmy Brent Olsen prevented the FBI from pursuing why Leifson has refused to this day to cooperate with investigators and why Olsen's level of cooperation turned cold.

Court records show that in March 2005, Leifson was called to testify before a federal grand jury and was asked about an argument he had with Olsen regarding Davis' disappearance. Leifson denied that it was a heated argument but prosecutors say they had recorded a conversation from a person wearing a hidden wire where Leifson threatened Olsen's life and threatened to "shoot him in the head," FBI Special Agent Mike Anderson testified in court Tuesday.

In a plea agreement accepted last year, Leifson admitted to lying when he denied having two heated arguments with Olsen, furious that Olsen had told others that Leifson was behind Davis' disappearance. According to the indictment against Leifson, two people were witnesses to both confrontations, and a third witness recorded Leifson admitting to having the arguments while wearing a concealed wire.

During Olsen's perjury trial in July 2006, Olsen's former girlfriend testified that while she and Olsen were "dragging" Main Street in Spanish Fork in the summer of 1996, about a year after Davis vanished from school, an angry Leifson forced their car off the road. The woman said Leifson walked up to their car and warned Olsen to stop telling people that he was involved in Davis' murder and disappearance and that he "better keep his mouth shut." Olsen was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for perjury after telling several people that he killed Davis and that Leifson was present.