Kevin Bui sentenced to 60 years in prison for setting fire to Green Valley ranch

Abou Diol holds his head next to a photo of his brother Djibril Diol and other family members after a news conference announcing the arrest of three juvenile suspects in the arson that killed Djibril Diol and four family members at the Denver Police Department's forensic science lab on Jan. 27, 2021. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

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 investigation and legal proceedings finally came to a close.

They bowed their heads, closed their eyes and shook hands as the last arsonist responsible for a horrific fire at Green Valley Ranch that killed five people faced sentencing. A handful of others watching the broadcast from West Africa sat in a digital waiting room or on a speakerphone.

“Kevin Bui is all I have left of Djibril,” said Lamine Kane, a family friend, as he held up a pair of white and blue sneakers on the podium. “You destroyed an entire community. … Did you know right from wrong that night? When you bought the masks? When you planned the trip?”

After 1,427 days, Kevin Bui — the last of three teenage arsonists who doused the interior of a Truckee Street home with gas and started the blaze 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’s history,” Assistant District Attorney Courtney Johnston said at the hearing. “This was not an accident. It was not impulsive, it was not reckless, it was not reckless. It was intentional. The goal was to burn the house down and kill everyone in it.”

Johnston said it was appropriate to end the legal chapter of this case with Bui's conviction, given his plan caused all of this to happen in the early morning hours of Aug. 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 6-month-old daughter, Hawa Baye.

Bui, now 20, and two other teenagers at the time, Gavin Seymour and Dillon Siebert, had been planning the fire for weeks. They set the house on fire because Bui mistakenly believed someone who had stolen his phone was living there and wanted revenge, according to court testimony.

A security camera captured a ghostly image of the three teenagers wearing masks and hoodies near the scene of the fire.

“As homicide detectives, we see death every day and we usually learn to live with it,” said Denver police detective Neil Baker. “This is one of the cases that will stick with me forever in my 33-year career on the force. It’s by far one of the most senseless murders we’ve ever investigated.”

Kane, a friend of the Diols for more than a decade, said he served as an interpreter throughout the trials, speaking on behalf of the family and briefing them on courtroom details. He said the years of court proceedings have left members of the Senegalese community unable to grieve, forcing them to revolve their lives around the courtroom.

“I will never forget how Djibril’s mother hugged me and screamed,” he said, recalling his visit to the Diols’ home in Senegal after the family’s death.

Asked by Kane by phone from Senegal, Djibril and Hassan's father, Hanady Diol, said the fire still appeared to have happened yesterday, even as the fourth anniversary approached.

“Since this happened, I am a dead person who is not yet buried,” Hanady Diol told the court.

Bui pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in March, a plea deal that saw prosecutors drop 60 other charges, including multiple counts of first-degree murder, assault, burglary and arson. The deal also dismissed a second, separate case in which the 18-year-old was accused of smuggling drugs into prison.

At Tuesday's hearing, Brody sentenced Bui to 30 years in prison and five years of mandatory parole on each count of second-degree murder, a term agreed to by the defense and prosecution and stipulated in the plea agreement. The 20-year-old could have faced up to 48 years in prison on each count.

“This is an incomprehensible and senseless tragedy,” Brody said. “The loss of innocent lives is horrific.”

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 imagined what I would say many times, but I still cannot find the words to fully describe the pain,” Bui said in a statement to the court. “No matter what I do, no matter how long it takes for life to resume or for the media to forget these people, the scars will always be there.”

Bui took full responsibility for the arson and deaths that occurred 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. At the end of the day, my words and my actions don’t erase that pain.”

Along with Baker, 10 members of Colorado's Senegalese community made statements in court for the prosecution, asking Brody to ignore the plea deal and impose the maximum sentence.

“I will never forget you 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 move away from Bui during her statement.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to say what I have to say without looking at him,” Beye said, turning back to Bui. “You killed five people, you took me away from my wife, you took me away from my baby that I’ll never have the chance to see again. If I were you, I’d kill myself.”

Wearing a t-shirt that read “#justicefordiolfamily,” Ousman Ba, another family friend, also took the stand.