Denver teen, 16, who set fire to wrong home and burned five innocent family members alive in revenge plot to retrieve stolen iPhone is jailed
The leader of a teenage gang who burned two babies and three adults after targeting the wrong Colorado home in revenge for an iPhone theft will serve a 60-year prison sentence.
Lawyers for Kevin Bui, 20, accepted a plea deal after he admitted to setting fire to the Denver home where eight innocent people were sleeping on an August night in 2020.
Bui and two accomplices broke into the Green Valley Ranch home and doused the walls with gasoline before setting it on fire and leaving the family to fend for themselves.
Three people jumped to safety from a second-floor window, but the bodies of Djibril Diol, his wife Adja, 23, their 21-month-old daughter Khadija, along with Diol’s sister Hassan and her six-month-old daughter Hawa, were found huddled near the found the front door.
“It’s not the closure I imagined, but I think it’s the best we could get,” said family friend Ousman Ba.
Kevin Bui has accepted a 60-year prison sentence for his role as the 16-year-old leader of a teenage gang who set fire to the wrong house in revenge for a stolen iPhone
Djibril Diol, his wife Adja, 23, their 21-month-old daughter Khadija, along with Diol’s sister Hassan and her six-month-old daughter Hawa, were killed in the fire
Police officers approaching the house were driven back by the intensity of the heat
Bui and his friends Gavin Seymour, 16, and Dillon Siebert, 14, had spent weeks planning the attack on the house.
Bui had misidentified it after using the ‘Find My iPhone’ app to track the location of his stolen device around the family.
They bought hockey-style masks at a costume shop and were captured on ghostly surveillance footage as they approached the house loaded with cans of gasoline on the night of the fire.
Denver Police Officer Gordon King was one of the first on the scene and heard someone trying to unlock the front door from the inside with a keypad.
“Officer King kicked in the front door, but was pushed away from the door by the extreme heat,” the arrest warrant for Seymour stated.
“Officer King could see a small human body about three feet inside the front door.
“As Officer King attempted to get the individual out, it was apparent that the individual was not alive and Officer King was forced back by the extreme heat of the fire.”
Investigators had little to go on until they ordered Google to hand over information on anyone who had searched online for the Truckee Street address in the two weeks before the fire.
Bui’s father, Thuan Bui, was in court to see the plea deal announced and told reporters: ‘We accept it’
The killers were caught on chilling surveillance footage approaching the house, wearing hockey masks and armed with cans of gasoline
Little was left of the Green Valley home after the gasoline-fueled inferno
Among those killed in the fire were Hassan Diol’s brother, Djibril (right), his wife, Adja Diol (left) and their 22-month-old daughter Khadija.
They were then able to place Bui, Seymour and Siebert on the spot using location data from their mobile phones.
Prosecutors said the three tried to cover their tracks and searched online for information about the fire and jail time for murder.
The trio was arrested in January 2021 and charged with crimes including first-degree murder with extreme indifference, attempted murder with extreme indifference, burglary and assault with a deadly weapon.
Siebert was sentenced to ten years behind bars in February 2023 for his role in the crime.
Seymour pleaded guilty to manslaughter in March and received a 40-year prison sentence, followed by five years of mandatory parole.
Bui’s legal team announced a deal with the Denver District Attorney’s Office on Friday in which he agreed to a 60-year sentence in a state prison in exchange for the district attorney’s office dropping another 60 criminal charges.
Bui’s father, Thuan Bui, was in court to see the plea deal announced and told reporters, “We accept it.”
The slain family was originally from Senegal and Diol had graduated from Colorado State University in 2018 with a degree in civil engineering.
Diol worked for Kiewit’s construction and his family stayed with friends in the house until they could get their own house.
The killings shocked the city’s close-knit Senegalese community and drew condolences from the country’s president.
Family members watched online from Senegal as Seymour was sentenced in March, and Amadou Beye, who lost his wife Hassan and six-month-old Hawa, personally addressed him in court.
“I hope that when you die, you will die slowly and hard,” he told him.
‘And you will die young. And when you die, I hope you will feel all the pain they felt when they died. And you will feel all the pain we feel right now.”
Seymour apologized in court, saying: ‘If I could go back and prevent all this, I would.
‘Not a moment goes by that I don’t feel extreme guilt and remorse for my actions. …I want to say to the family members and the community how sorry I am for all the harm I have caused.”
Seymour apologized for his role in the killings when he was sentenced to 40 years in March
Djibril’s brother clutched his head as details of the killing were revealed at a Denver police news conference following the arrests in January 2021.
The killings shocked the city’s close-knit Senegalese community and drew condolences from the country’s president.
But Hanady Diol, who lost his son Djibril and daughter Hassan, said he had thought about killing himself after their deaths.
‘This person here is talking about 40 or 30 years. That just means there is no justice. There is no judgment that the people who died are human beings.
‘I am powerless. “I didn’t learn it, but I know that the people you killed couldn’t even kill a fly,” he said.
“The people you killed were my hope and my life. Know that you didn’t just kill five people.
“Myself and their mother; we are breathing, but we are dead.”
Bui will return to court on July 2 for formal sentencing.