Kevin Bui, right, agreed to serve 60 years behind bars for setting fire to a Denver home that killed five family members on Aug. 5, 2020. (Denver Prosecutor’s Office)
A 20-year-old man in Colorado will spend several decades behind bars for killing five family members — including two children — by intentionally setting fire to their house because he mistakenly believed that an iPhone stolen from him was in the home.
Second Judicial District Court Judge Karen L. Brody on Tuesday ordered Kevin Bui to serve a sentence of 60 years in a state correctional facility for the heinous crime
Bui in May pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in the 2020 deaths of Djibril “Jibby” Diol, his 23-year-old wife Adja, and their 21-month-old daughter, Khadija, along with Diol’s sister Hassan and her 6-month-old daughter, Hawa Beye. All of the adult victims were from Senegal.
Bui’s legal team reached a deal with prosecutors in the Denver District Attorney’s Office in which he agreed to serve a sentence of 60 years in a state correctional facility in exchange for the state dropping an additional 60 criminal charges he had been facing.
According to a report from Denver ABC affiliate KMGH, Bui addressed the court on Tuesday and said he took “full responsibility” for the deadly attack, reiterating that he was the primary instigator behind the fire.
Multiple family members attended the proceeding, reportedly telling the court that 60 years was not enough time in prison considering what Bui took from them.
Family member Ousman Ba told the station that they had been “waiting for this day for a long time.”
“We’ve been grieving for a long time and this is a step towards closure,” he said. “It’s not the closure we wanted, but it’s a step closer for all of us.”
Ba added that the family can now “just mourn” and celebrate the lives of the “amazing individuals” who lost their lives in the tragedy.
Bui was 16 years old at the time he and two others — Gavin Seymour and Dillon Siebert — lit the fatal blaze while the five victims and three others were inside of the home located in the 5300 block of North Truckee Street in Green Valley Ranch. The three individuals who survived the fire all leapt from a window on the second floor of the home.
Authorities said that Bui was considered to be the ringleader of the group.
According to investigators, Bui claimed his iPhone, sneakers, and cash were stolen from him when he tried to purchase a gun from someone on the street. Bui then used the “Find My” app to track the location of his stolen device to the general area of family’s home without getting an exact location.
The three were said to have spent weeks planning the fire as revenge for Bui’s stolen cellphone. They went to a costume store and bought hockey-style masks before breaking into the back door of the home armed with containers of full of gasoline. They doused the walls with the accelerant and then set the home ablaze before fleeing the scene on foot. The home quickly became fully engulfed in flames.
Kevin Bui, Gavin Seymour, and Dillon Siebert just before setting the deadly blaze (Denver DA’s Office)
Police said they were able to place Bui, Seymour, and Siebert at the scene through cellphone location data. The three were also captured on surveillance footage at a local store purchasing masks they wore during the commission of the crime, which was also filmed by a neighbor’s doorbell camera, authorities said.
Police arrested the trio in January 2021, initially charging them with dozens of felonies including first-degree murder and arson.
Seymour, who was also 16 at the time, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder earlier this year and was subsequently sentenced to 40 years behind bars.
Siebert, who was only 14 years old, similarly pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was ordered to serve three years in a juvenile detention center plus an additional seven years in Youth Offender Services. A judge suspended an additional 26 years of his sentence, which he will have to serve if he’s found to violate the terms of his current sentence.
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