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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A judge has granted a prosecution motion to drop one count of perjury against Timmy Brent Olsen, who is accused of lying during the investigation into the 1995 disappearance of a Spanish Fork teenager.
Olsen's federal trial is scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection before U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene. He is now charged with 15 counts of lying to a grand jury investigating the disappearance of 15-year-old Kiplyn Davis.
In addition to the federal charges, the state has charged Olsen with first-degree felony murder in Kiplyn's death. Prosecutors in 4th District Court in Provo don't plan to try the case until after Olsen's federal trial concludes. If convicted, he could receive a life sentence.
On Thursday, Greene granted a request by prosecutors to drop one of the perjury counts after it was learned a witnesses who testified she heard Olsen admit he was involved in Kiplyn's disappearance actually heard the statement from a third party, making the testimony inadmissible as hearsay, according to court documents.
The same witness's testimony was used in two other charges, but prosecutors said in the motion that they would strike her testimony from those counts, using only information from other witnesses.
Olsen, 28, a mechanic, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each federal count -- a possible 75 years -- if convicted.
Olsen is accused of providing false and fraudulent information to a grand jury and is alleged to have information about the disappearance of Kiplyn, who was last seen on May 2, 1995, at Spanish Fork High School.
Federal prosecutors allege that Olsen told several friends that he raped and killed Kiplyn and buried her body, according to court documents. Her body has not been found.
Separate federal perjury trials are scheduled later this year for two other men charged in the case: David Rucker Leifson, 29, and Christopher Neal Jeppson, 29.
Two other defendants, Garry Von Blackmore, 26, and Scott Brunson, 29, have pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and a federal grand jury and are scheduled to be sentenced sometime after Olsen's trial.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
