Nearly four years after a Green Valley Ranch arson left five Senegalese family members dead, the final suspect charged was sentenced to 60 years in prison.

Denver District Court Judge Karen Brody sentenced 20-year-old Kevin Bui to 60 years in prison on Tuesday morning following the man’s guilty plea to two counts of second-degree murder. Bui will receive 30 years per count, running consecutively.

In exchange for the plea, which happened on May 17, 60 other counts were dismissed including first-degree murder, attempted murder, arson and burglary. A separate drug case that Bui picked up while in jail was also dismissed and resolved as part of the plea agreement.

According to prosecutors, Bui was the “ringleader” in the Aug. 5, 2020 arson that left Djibril Diol, 29; Djibril’s wife, Adja, 23; the couple’s 2-year-old daughter Khadija; Djibril’s sister, Hassan, 25, and Hassan’s 6-month-old daughter, Hawa Beye, dead.

Bui, along with Gavin Seymour and Dillon Siebert — Bui and Seymour were 16 at the time, Siebert 15 — started a fire at the home in the middle of the night because Bui believed people who had recently robbed him lived in the home after mistakenly tracking his stolen iPhone there using an app, the prosecution said.

Five of the eight people in the house died. The three who escaped — the owner of the home, his wife and child — suffered broken bones and trauma after jumping from the third-story window.

Bui and Seymour planned the fire for three weeks, according to Courtney Johnston, the lead prosecutor in the case. Bui even Googled the floor plan of the house. 

The duo texted about the fire during that period, according to Denver Police Department Det. Neil Baker. Bui sent Seymour a text message that read, “#possibly ruin our futures and burn his house down.”

The trio were arrested by the Denver Police Department in January 2021. 

Siebert was sentenced to seven years in Colorado’s Youthful Offender System, part of the Department of Corrections, and three years in the Division of Youth Services on Feb. 1, 2023. 

Siebert also faces a suspended sentence of 26 years in Youth Offender Services, which he would only have to serve if he violates the terms of the seven-year sentence he’s currently serving.

Seymour was sentenced to 40 years in prison on March 15, 2024.

“As the ringleader of this deeply disturbing and utterly senseless crime, Kevin Bui deserved exactly what he received today: the longest sentence of the three defendants in the case,” Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said in a statement. “Were it not for his actions, five completely innocent victims would still be alive today. It is my hope that his sentence will bring some measure of comfort and a sense of justice to the victims’ families and friends.”

This story was written with the help of The Denver Gazette’s news partner, 9News, and Denver Gazette reporter Carol McKinley.