A Colorado man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for a home arson attack that killed a Senegalese immigrant family of five during a robbery revenge plot gone wrong.
The alleged mastermind of the scheme, Kevin Bui, now 20, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in a plea deal. Sixty other charges, including a first-degree murder charge, were dropped by prosecutors as part of the plea deal.
Bui told investigators he was robbed a month before the fire while trying to buy a gun. Court records say the suspect used an app on his iPhone to find the house. He admitted to setting the fire and learned the next day from a news report that the victim was not the man who robbed him, police said.
The fire appears to have been a planned retaliation for a stolen mobile phone being accidentally brought into the house.
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A Colorado man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for arson that killed a Senegalese family of five. (Denver District Attorney)
Djibril Dior, 29, his wife Aja Dior, 23, and their 22-month-old daughter Khadija, as well as Djibril Dior’s sister Hassan Dior, 25, and her seven-month-old daughter Hawa, all died in the fire.
Djibril and Hassan Diol’s father, Hamadi Diol, told the court by phone from Senegal through an interpreter that he needed medication to help him sleep after losing his loved ones.
“I am a dead man who has yet to be buried,” he said, according to the Associated Press.
Hassan’s husband, Amadou Beyet, was still in Senegal at the time of the fire and was working on obtaining a visa to join his family in the United States.
In court, Beyer called Bui a “great terrorist” who was not allowed to eat, sleep or talk to his family while in prison. Addressing Bui directly, he said: “You keep us from being normal.”
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According to the affidavit, a Denver Police Department officer in the area attempted to run into the burning home after seeing a “small human” inside, but was forced to turn back because of the heat. (Denver District Attorney’s Office)
Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said she hopes Bui’s sentence brings some comfort to his family and friends.
“As the mastermind of this deeply disturbing and completely senseless crime, Kevin Bui truly deserved the sentence he received today – the longest of any of the three defendants in this case. Without his actions, the five entirely innocent victims would still be alive today. I hope his sentence brings some comfort and a sense of justice to the victims’ families and friends,” Mr McCann said.
Bui told the court he was an “ignorant fool” at the time the fire started. He rejected ideas he was a monster or a terrorist, saying “my heart beats with yours.”
“I have no excuses and no one to blame but myself,” he added.
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Bui’s lawyers argued that he did not start the fire himself, and that the youngest of a trio of friends charged in the case was responsible. Police disputed that, saying Bui admitted to starting the fire himself and suffering burns in the process, according to the Associated Press.
Bui will be the final defendant to be sentenced in the case.
Gavin Seymour, now 19, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Dillon Siebert, who was 14 at the time of the fire, was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention and seven years in a state prison for young inmates.
Investigators stand outside a home where five migrants from Senegal were found dead after a fire in suburban Denver, August 5, 2020. (Associated Press)
“If I could go back and prevent all of this, I would,” Seymour previously said. “There is not a moment that goes by that I don’t feel extreme guilt and regret for my actions. … I want to tell my family and community that I am truly sorry for any harm I have caused.”
Surveillance camera footage showed three suspects wearing full-face masks and black hoodies outside the home just before the fire began on Aug. 5, 2020.
Police took a controversial tactic: they asked Google to reveal which IP addresses had searched for the home’s address within 15 days of the fire. They were ultimately able to identify Bui, Seymour, and Siebert as suspects.
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In October, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld searches of Google users’ keyword histories, a practice critics say amounts to a digital dragnet that threatens to undermine people’s privacy and constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. The court cautioned that it was not making a “broad pronouncement” about the constitutionality of such search warrants and stressed that it was ruling on the facts of the case.
Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
