After a house fire killed five members of a Senegalese family, a man from Colorado, Kevin Bui, received a 60-year jail term.
After being robbed not long ago (trying to buy a gun), Bui naively believed he had located his stolen iPhone inside the house and plotted his revenge.
While innocent families slept inside the house, Bui burnt it to the ground.
The three immigrant families that lost loved ones were all trying to make ends meet back home. The homeowners escaped unharmed, but two other families who had rented from them met their tragic end.
The death toll included Djibril Diol, his wife Adja Diol (29 and 23, respectively), and their 22-month-old daughter Khadija.
7-month-old Hawa was killed along with her mother, Djibril’s sister, Hassan Diol, 25.
Engineer Djibril Diol was known for helping other immigrants as he worked on the massive reconstruction of Interstate 70 in Denver. To ensure that their children were taken care of and that their families in Senegal continued to receive financial assistance, Adja Diol and her sister-in-law, Hassan Diol, worked opposite shifts at Amazon.
According to the prosecution, Bui was the mastermind behind the plot; he had already been robbed of his phone, cash, and shoes while attempting to purchase a firearm prior to setting the fire. Additionally, he had been assisting Tanya Bui, his elder sister, with her drug deliveries.
Bui did not act alone. He had two buddies assist with the arson. He messaged a buddy about how burning down their house may destroy their futures.
After concluding that the house was not randomly selected, the police adopted an unusual tactic: they requested that Google disclose the IP addresses of people who searched the address online in the fifteen days preceding the fire. After obtaining the identities of five individuals in Colorado through an additional search request, the police were able to identify Bui, Seymour, and Siebert as potential suspects.
Dillon Siebert received a three-year sentence in juvenile detention with an additional seven-year stint in state prison for young offenders. Siebert was fourteen years old when the fire occurred.
The 19-year-old Gavin Seymour pleaded guilty to one charge of second-degree murder and received a 40-year jail term.
