Denver teen, 16, who set fire to wrong home and burned five innocent family members alive in revenge plot to retrieve stolen iPhone is jailed

The leader of a teenage gang that incinerated two babies and three adults after targeting the wrong Colorado home in revenge for an iPhone theft will serve 60 years in jail.

Lawyers for Kevin Bui, 20, accepted a plea deal after he admitted torching the Denver home where eight innocent people were sleeping on an August night in 2020.

Bui and two accomplices broke into the Green Valley Ranch home and doused the walls with gasoline before setting it alight and leaving the family to its fate.

Three people jumped to safety from a second-story window, but the bodies of Djibril Diol, his wife Adja, 23, their 21-month-old daughter, Khadija, along with Diol's sister Hassan and her six-month-old daughter, Hawa, were found huddled together by the front door.

'It's not like the closure I imagined, but I guess it's the best we could get,' said family friend Ousman Ba.

Kevin Bui has accepted a 60-year-sentence for his role as the 16-year-old leader of a teenage gang that torched the wrong home in revenge for a stolen iPhone 

Djibril Diol, his wife Adja, 23, their 21-month-old daughter, Khadija, along with Diol's sister Hassan and her six-month-old daughter, Hawa, were murdered in the fire

Police officers who approached the house were beaten back by the intensity of the heat

Bui, and his friends Gavin Seymour, 16, and Dillon Siebert, 14, had spent weeks planning the attack on the home.

Bui had wrongly identified it after using the 'Find My iPhone' app to track the location of his stolen device to the family's neighborhood.

They bought hockey-style masks from a costume store and were recorded in ghostly surveillance footage approaching the house laden with cans of gasoline on the night of the fire.

Denver police officer Gordon King was among the first on the scene and heard someone trying to unlock the front door from inside with a keypad.

'Officer King kicked in the front door but was forced away from the door by the extreme heat,' the arrest warrant for Seymour recorded.

'Officer King was able to see a small human body approximately three feet inside of the front door. 

'As Officer King attempted to get the person out it was apparent that the person was not alive and Officer King was forced back by the extreme heat of the fire.'

Investigators had little to go on until they ordered Google to hand over information on anyone who had searched online for the Truckee Street address in the two weeks before the fire.

Bui's father, Thuan Bui, was in court to see the plea deal announced, telling reporters: 'We accept it'

The killers were caught in chilling surveillance footage as they approached the home, decked out in hockey masks and armed with cans of gasoline 

Little remained of the house in Green Valley after the gasoline-fueled inferno 

Among those killed in the fire were Hassan Diol’s brother, Djibril (right), his wife, Adja Diol (left) and their 22-month-old daughter Khadija

They were then able to place Bui, Seymour, and Siebert at the scene through cell phone location data.

Prosecutors said the three tried to cover their tracks and searched online for information on the fire and about the prison sentence for murder.

The trio were arrested in January 2021 and charged with crimes including first-degree murder with extreme indifference, attempted murder with extreme indifference, burglary and assault with a deadly weapon.

Siebert was sentenced in February 2023 to ten years behind bars for his role in the crime.

Seymour pleaded guilty to second degree murder in March and was jailed for 40 years followed by five years of mandatory parole.

Bui's legal team announced a deal with the Denver District Attorney's Office on Friday in which he agreed to 60 years in a state correctional facility in exchange for the DA dropping an additional 60 criminal charges.

Bui's father, Thuan Bui, was in court to see the plea deal announced, telling reporters: 'We accept it.'

The murdered family were originally from Senegal and Diol had graduated in 2018 from Colorado State University with a degree in civil engineering.

Diol was working for Kiewit construction, and his family were staying with friends at the house until they could get a home of their own.

The murders appalled the city's tightly-knit Senegalese community and brought condolences from the country's president.

Family members watched online from Senegal as Seymour was sentenced in March, and Amadou Beye, who lost his wife Hassan and six-month-old Hawa addressed him personally in court.

'I hope when you die you will die slow and hard,' he told him.

'And you will die young. And when you die, I hope you will feel all the pain they did feel when they were dying. And you will feel all the pain that we feel right now.'

Seymour apologized in court and said: 'If I could go back and prevent all this I would.

'There is not a moment that goes by that I don't feel extreme guilt and remorse for my actions. …I want to say how truly sorry I am to the family members and community for all the harm I've done.'

Seymour apologized for his role in the murders as he was sentenced to 40 years in March

Djibril's brother clutched his head as details of the murder were revealed at a Denver Police news conference following the arrests in January 2021

The murders appalled the city's tightly-knit Senegalese community and brought condolences from the country's president

But Hanady Diol, who lost his son Djibril and daughter Hassan, said he had thought about killing himself after their deaths.

'This person here, they are talking about 40 or 30 years. That just means there is no justice there. There is no judging that the people who died are human beings.

'I'm powerless. I'm unlearned, But know that the people you killed they couldn't even kill a fly,' he said. 

'The people you killed were my hope and life. Know you haven't just killed five people.

'Myself and their mother; we're breathing, but we're dead.'

Bui will return to court for formal sentencing on July 2.