More than a dozen members of Colorado’s Senegalese community listened silently in a Denver courtroom Tuesday morning, waiting for their last chance to be heard as nearly four years of police investigations and legal proceedings finally came to an end.
They bowed their heads, closed their eyes and held hands as they became the latest arsonist responsible for a horrific house fire at Green Valley Ranch that killed five people facing punishment. A handful of people from West Africa sat in a digital waiting room or via loudspeaker.
“Kevin Bui, this is all I have left of Djibril,” said family friend Lamine Kane, holding up a pair of white and blue sneakers on stage. “You destroyed an entire community. …Did you know right from wrong that night? When did you buy the masks? When did you plan the trip?
After 1,427 days, Kevin Bui — the last of three teenage arsonists who doused the inside of a Truckee Street home with gas and started the fire that killed three Senegalese adults and two children — was sentenced to 60 years in prison by Denver District Court Judge Karen . Brody.
“Kevin Bui’s conviction marks the end of one of the darkest chapters in Denver history,” Deputy District Attorney Courtney Johnston said during the hearing. “This was not an accident. This wasn’t impulsive, it wasn’t careless, it wasn’t reckless. It was by design. The goal was to burn the house down and kill everyone in it.”
Johnston said it was appropriate to close the legal chapter of this case with Bui’s sentencing as his plan saw it all happen in the early morning hours of August 5, 2020.
Djibril Diol, 29, his wife, Adja Diol, 23, and their daughter, Khadija Diol, 1, died in the house fire, along with Djibril’s sister, Hassan Diol, 25, and her six-month-old daughter, Hawa Baye.
Bui, now 20, and two other then-teenagers – Gavin Seymour and Dillon Siebert – planned the fire for weeks. They set fire to the house because Bui wrongly believed that someone lived there who had stolen his phone and that he wanted revenge, according to court testimony.
Denver Police
Denver police released these images in 2020 of three masked suspects in the fatal arson at Green Valley Ranch.
A security camera captured a ghostly image of the three teens wearing masks and hoodies near the scene of the fire.
“As homicide detectives, we see death every day and usually learn to live with it,” said Denver Police Detective Neil Baker. “This is one of the things in my 33 years in law enforcement that I will carry with me forever. This is by far one of the most senseless murders we have ever investigated.”
Kane, a friend of de Diol’s for more than a decade, said he acted as an interpreter during the trials, speaking on behalf of the family and informing them of courtroom details. He said years of hearings have left members of the Senegalese community unable to grieve, forcing them to turn their lives around in the courtroom.
“I will never forget how Djibril’s mother hugged me and just screamed,” he said, recalling his visit to the Diol home in Senegal after the family’s death.
Speaking via Kane by phone from Senegal, Djibril and Hassan’s father – Hanady Diol – said the fire still feels like yesterday, even as the fourth anniversary approaches.
“Since this happened, I am a dead person who has not been buried yet,” Hanady Diol told the court.
Hyoung Chang, JS
The five members of the Diol family who died in an August 2020 arson at their Green Valley Ranch home are pictured at a news conference held by Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen on Wednesday, January 27, 2021, announcing the arrest of three teenagers. suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with the fire.
Bui pleaded guilty in March to two counts of first-degree murder, a plea deal that saw prosecutors drop 60 other charges, including multiple counts of first-degree murder, assault, burglary and arson. The agreement also dismissed a second, separate case in which the then 18-year-old was accused of bringing drugs into the prison.
Brody sentenced Bui at Tuesday’s hearing to 30 years in prison and five years of mandatory parole for each second-degree murder charge, a term agreed to by the defense and prosecution and set out in the plea deal. The 20-year-old could have faced as many as 48 years in prison on each count.
“This is an incomprehensible and senseless tragedy,” Brody said. “The loss of innocent lives is devastating.”
Although his parents sat on the hard benches of the Denver courthouse when Bui pleaded guilty in March, the duo watched the sentencing hearing online Tuesday, listening with the help of a Vietnamese interpreter.
“I have thought so many times what to say, but I still cannot find words that fully describe the pain,” Bui said in a statement to the court. “No matter what I do, no matter how much time it takes for lives to resume or for the media to forget about these people, the scars will still be there.”
Bui took full responsibility for the arson and deaths on Tuesday.
“It’s not Dillon’s fault and it’s not Gavin’s fault,” he told the court. “Regardless of who did what, I take full responsibility. Ultimately, my words and actions cannot take away the pain.”
In addition to Baker, ten members of the Senegalese community in Colorado made statements in court for the prosecution, asking Brody to ignore the plea deal and hand down the maximum sentence.
“I will never forget or forgive you for what you did to me,” said Amahdu Beye, whose one-year-old daughter died in the flames.
Brody had to ask Beye several times to look at her and away from Bui when he made his statement.
“I don’t know if I can say what I need to say without looking at him,” Beye said, turning back to Bui. “You killed five people, took me away from my wife, took me away from my baby that I will never see again. If I were you, I would kill myself.”
Helen H. Richardson, JS
The burned-out Diol family home is still fenced in and old bouquets, stuffed animals and other mementos hang from the fence surrounding it in Denver on Jan. 27, 2021.
Ousman Ba, another family friend, also wore a T-shirt that read ‘#justicefordiolfamily’ and entered the stand.
“I will never call my best friend again,” he said. “I will never be able to stay up late just talking about life goals and plans. And what hurts me most is that I can’t stop thinking about it.”
Ba said Djibril Diol asked him years ago if Denver was the right place and Ba, who has lived in Denver since he was 6, told him to come.
“After that horrible day, I didn’t know if this was my home anymore,” Ba said. “Our community was hurt and I lost the trust I had in this city.”
In March, Brody sentenced 19-year-old Seymour to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter — the maximum possible sentence he faced.
Siebert was 14 years old at the time of the crime and was prosecuted as a minor. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2022 and was sentenced to three years of juvenile detention, followed by seven years in prison.
The cases against Bui and Seymour stalled for several months after the couple questioned the legality of the search warrant that Denver police used to identify them — through Google search results — as suspects in the fire. The Colorado Supreme Court upheld the search warrant in October.
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