A Colorado man, Kevin Bui, pleaded guilty to murder charges on Friday for starting a house fire in 2020 that killed five members of a Senegalese family. Bui, who was a teenager at the time but prosecuted as an adult, sought misplaced revenge for a stolen iPhone he mistakenly tracked to the family’s house.
Bui, now 20, has been identified by prosecutors as the ringleader of a group of three friends who set the fire on August 5, 2020, in a Denver neighborhood. Bui erroneously believed that the individuals who had recently robbed him lived in the house after using an app to track his stolen phone to the vicinity, according to prior court testimony.
Bui pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder. A plea deal proposes a sentence of up to 60 years in prison, with 30 years for each count. The maximum penalty for each count of second-degree murder is 48 years and a $1 million fine. Judge Karen Brody set sentencing for July 2.
During the hearing, Bui sat with his lawyers, his hands cuffed in front of him, and wearing a green jail uniform. He gave brief answers to the judge’s questions while his parents watched from the court gallery, listening through an interpreter. Bui’s father told reporters after the hearing that they accepted the plea agreement. No relatives of the victims were present in court.
Bui is the last of the three friends to enter a plea for the fire that killed Djibril Diol, 29; Adja Diol, 23; their 22-month-old daughter, Khadija Diol; and their relative, Hassan Diol, 25; and her 6-month-old daughter, Hawa Baye. Three other people escaped by jumping from the second floor of the home.
Last year, 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 program for young inmates. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder under a deal that considered his lesser role in planning the fire, his remorse, and his interest in rehabilitation, balanced against the severity of the crime.
In March, Gavin Seymour, 19, was sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of second-degree murder. His plea came after a failed attempt to get the internet search history evidence that led to their arrests thrown out.
The investigation of the fire stalled for months without leads. Surveillance video showed three suspects wearing full face masks and dark hoodies. Fears that the fire was a hate crime led many Senegalese immigrants to install security cameras at their homes. With little evidence, police obtained a search warrant for Google to identify IP addresses that had searched the home’s address within 15 days of the fire. Five IP addresses were found in Colorado, and police identified the suspects after further investigation. Bui, Seymour, and Siebert were arrested about five months after the fire.
In October, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld the search of Google users’ keyword history, an approach criticized as a digital dragnet threatening privacy and constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. However, the court emphasized that its ruling was specific to the facts of this case and not a broad declaration on the constitutionality of such warrants.
