A Colorado man, Kevin Bui, pleaded guilty to murder charges for starting a 2020 house fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family, based on a mistaken belief that they had stolen his iPhone. Bui’s plea deal proposes a sentence of up to 60 years in prison, with a hearing scheduled for July 2. Bui was portrayed as the ringleader of three friends who started the fire, which resulted in the deaths of Djibril Diol, Adja Diol, their two children, and a relative. The families supported the plea deal, although they had initially hoped for a life sentence without parole.
Bui is the last of the three friends to enter a plea in the case. One friend, Dillon Siebert, was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention and seven years in a state prison program, while another, Gavin Seymour, received a 40-year prison sentence. The investigation into the fire initially had no leads, but eventually, police were able to identify the suspects through search warrants that obtained internet search history evidence. The case raised concerns about privacy and constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. The Colorado Supreme Court upheld the search warrants in October, specifying that it was ruling on the facts of this particular case.
The families of the victims, represented by spokesperson Ousman Ba, accepted the plea deal as the best option after nearly four years. They believed that the harsh sentence of life in prison without parole was not a guaranteed outcome due to the age of the perpetrators at the time of the crime. The families expressed faith in a higher form of justice and thanked prosecutors for their communication throughout the case. Bui pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, and 60 other charges, including first-degree murder, were dropped as part of the plea agreement.
The fire, which occurred in August 2020, resulted in the deaths of five members of the Senegalese family and injuries to three other individuals who managed to escape by jumping from the second floor of the home. The incident initially raised concerns about a hate crime targeting the immigrant community, prompting increased security measures among Senegalese residents. The investigation eventually led to the arrest of Bui, Seymour, and Siebert about five months after the fire. While the families had hoped for a more severe penalty, they ultimately accepted the plea deal for the closure it provided after years of uncertainty. The sentencing for Bui is set for July 2.
