A Colorado man was sentenced to 60 years in prison on Tuesday for setting a fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family out of revenge for a robbery after he mistakenly tracked his stolen iPhone to the house.
Kevin Bui, now 20, pleaded guilty to the killings in May.
He is the last of three friends to be sentenced for the August 2020 fire that killed Hassan Diol, her infant daughter, Hawa; Diol’s brother, Djibril Diol; his wife, Adja Diol; and their 22-month-old daughter, Khadija.
Prosecutors have portrayed Bui as the ring leader of the group.
Police say Bui told them he had been robbed of his phone, money and shoes while trying to buy a gun shortly before the fire. Using an app to track his phone, they say he mistakenly believed the people who robbed him lived in the home.
Husband was waiting for visa
In between shifts at Amazon to earn money she could send home to her relatives in Senegal — working opposite times as her sister-in-law so they could care for each other's children — Hassan Diol would call to talk to her husband several times a day.
Amadou Beye was still in Senegal, trying to get a visa so he could also come to the United States.
His wife, joined by their infant daughter, would also video call every day. Amadou Beye couldn't wait to meet his child and see his wife again.
But he never got that chance.
Mistaken revenge
Diol and their little daughter, Hawa, and three other members of their extended family were killed in a house fire in Denver in 2020 that authorities said was set in the middle of the night by a group of teens in a case of mistaken revenge.
Beye sees Kevin Bui, now 20, as a “terrorist” for taking five members of one family, which also included his wife's brother Djibril Diol, who was an engineer, his wife, and their 22-month-old daughter.
Their bodies were found on the first floor of the home near the front door as they apparently tried to escape the flames.
Members of another family that also lived in the home managed to escape.
Emergency visa
Beye, who was granted an emergency visa after the fire, works as a mover and tries to avoid being alone in the evenings to keep from thinking about what he has lost.
With his roommate working nights as an Uber driver, he goes to the gym or calls family and friends late at night back home.
Prosecutors portrayed Bui as the ring leader of the group that started the fire.
After being arrested in connection with the fire, Bui told investigators he had been robbed of his phone, money and shoes while trying to buy a gun.
Pleaded guilty
Using an app to track his phone, Bui said he learned it was at the home and believed the people who robbed him lived there, though he did not search the home’s residents, Baker said at a hearing on the evidence in the case in 2021.
Bui admitted to setting the fire, only to realise the next day through news coverage that the victims were not the ones who robbed him, according to Baker. Investigators never said where Bui’s phone actually was.
In May, after a failed effort to challenge key evidence in the case, Bui pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder. Sixty other charges Bui had faced, including first-degree murder, attempted murder, arson and burglary, were dropped by prosecutors, who recommended that Bui be sentenced to 60 years in prison.
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