DENVER — A 20-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of second-degree murder for starting a house fire that killed five people in Denver’s Green Valley Ranch neighborhood nearly four years ago.
Kevin Bui agreed to serve 60 years in the Department of Corrections for both counts of second-degree murder (which normally carries a sentence of up to 48 years in prison for each count) in connection with the Aug. 5, 2020, fire that killed five Senegalese family members in a home on Truckee Street. Dozens of other charges against him, as well as a separate case in which he was accused of distributing drugs while in jail in 2022, were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
Bui and two teenagers — Gavin Seymour and Dillon Siebert — were accused in January 2021 of intentionally setting the house on fire in the middle of the night. The trio incorrectly thought Bui's stolen iPhone was in the home and set the home ablaze as revenge, according to an arrest affidavit.
Djibril Diol, 29; Adja Diol, 23; Khadija Diol, 2; Hassan Diol, 25; and 6-month-old Hawa Baye were killed in the blaze.
Siebert, who was 15 at the time, pleaded guilty in December of 2022 to second-degree murder charge that included a sentence enhancer for using a weapon in a crime and was sentenced about two months later.
The cases against Seymour and Bui, however, were stalled for several months while the Colorado Supreme Court considered whether the methods used by police to identify them as suspects in the arson were legal in the first place.
A search warrant requested by the Denver Police Department in the case required Google to turn over records of keyword searches for that address within a specific time frame, likely violating the suspect's 4th Amendment rights, which protects them from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. The state's supreme court upheld that controversial search warrant in October of last year, and the cases against Seymour and Bui were able to move forward.
Bui faced more than a dozen counts of first-degree murder, which carries an automatic sentence of life without the possibility of parole in Colorado. He was also charged with multiple counts of attempted murder, assault, burglary and arson, but the charges were dismissed because of the plea agreement.
Siebert was sentenced to a total 10 years behind bars in February 2023, followed by Seymour, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison in March 2024.
Bui's sentencing is scheduled for July 2, 2024, at 9 a.m. in Denver District Court.
