One of three teenagers accused of setting fire to a Denver home and killing five people was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison.
Gavin Seymour, 19, was charged with second-degree murder in January for his role in a fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family in a revenge plot for an accidentally stolen cellphone on August 5, 2020. pled guilty. House. Denver District Court Judge Karen Brody handed him the maximum sentence, the Denver Post reported.
“I think this is an incomprehensible tragedy for everyone involved,” Brody said. “The most innocent lives were lost.”
Seymour and two other teenagers, Kevin Bui and Dillon Siebert, are accused of setting the house on fire in the middle of the night, killing Djibril Dior, 29. Aja Deol, 23 years old. Khadija Deol, 1 year old (previous reports identified her as 2 years old). Hassan Diol, 25 years old. and 6-month-old Hawa Bai. The other three people escaped by jumping from the second floor of the house.
Denver police arrest three juveniles involved in fire that killed five Senegalese immigrants: Officers
Investigators stand outside the home where five Senegalese immigrants were found dead after a fire broke out in a Denver suburb on August 5, 2020. (AP)
Siebert, who was 14 at the time of the fire, was 17 when he was sentenced in February 2023 to three years in juvenile detention and seven years in the state’s youth prison program. Bui and Seymour, the alleged masterminds, were 16 years old at the time of the arson.
The case against Bui, which charges him with multiple first-degree murder charges, is still pending.
“Even if you kill five sheep or five goats, you should get the maximum sentence,” Hanadi Diol, a relative of the victim, told the court Friday via an interpreter by telephone from Senegal. “This person here is talking about 40 years or 30 years. That means there’s no justice there. There’s no judgment on whether the people who died were human beings or not.”
The teens were identified as suspects after police obtained a search warrant asking Google for accounts that searched for the home’s address within 15 days of the fire.
Five dead in Denver house fire, arson investigation underway
Gavin Seymour, Kevin Bui and Dillon Siebert are accused of setting a house on fire in the middle of the night, killing five members of the same family. (AP)
According to court records, Bui told investigators that he had been robbed while trying to buy a gun the month before the fire and that he had used an app to track his iPhone to his home. According to police, the man admitted to setting the fire, but learned from news reports the next day that the victim was not the robber.
Seymour and Bui’s attorneys challenged the search warrant, but the Colorado Supreme Court upheld the search. Bui is scheduled to appear in court on March 21st.
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Seymour apologized in court Friday for his role in the house fire.
“If I could go back in time and stop all of this, I would,” he said. “There isn’t a moment that goes by that I don’t feel extreme guilt and remorse for my actions…I want to say to my family and community that I am truly sorry for all the harm I have caused.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
