Colo. Man Pleads Guilty to Murdering Family of 5 in House Fire After Wrongfully Believing They Stole His Phone

Djibril Diol, 29, Adja Diol, 23, and their 22-month-old daughter, Khadija Diol, were killed along with Djibril's sister and her infant daughter, Hawa Beye

A Colorado man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with a 2020 fire that claimed the lives of a family of five, including two children, authorities said.

Kevin Bui pleaded guilty on Friday, May 17, and will face 60 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 2, the Denver District Attorney’s Office said in a post shared to X (formerly Twitter).

Bui is one of three men who “admitted to setting fire to a house in Green Valley Ranch and killing five people in August of 2020,” the post reads.

According to Bui’s arrest affidavit reviewed by PEOPLE, Bui, now 20, planned and started the Aug. 5, 2020 fire with help from two friends in order to seek revenge against the people he believed stole his iPhone during a purported drug transaction in July 2020. He mistook the people who had previously robbed him for residents of the Denver home after tracking his phone to the general area, the affidavit said.

Related: Denver Police Seek Leads in Arson House Fire That Killed 5 Members of 'Thriving' Family

The fire claimed the lives of Senegalese immigrants Djibril Diol, 29, his wife, Adja Diol, 23, and their 22-month-old daughter, Khadija Diol, according to the affidavit. Djibril’s sister Hassan Diol and her infant daughter, Hawa Beye, also died in the blaze. Three other people who escaped from a window were injured, the affidavit states.

At the time, Denver police released a photo of a masked trio in connection with the case, saying in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the “fire appeared to be deliberately set by three unknown individuals wearing dark hoodies and full-face masks ... who fled the area in a dark-colored 4-door sedan.” Authorities had previously offered a $14,000 reward in hopes of identifying the three people.

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Bui was arrested in January 2021 after investigators executed multiple search warrants and obtained surveillance video and other evidence that placed him and the two other suspects at or around the crime scene, per the affidavit. All were teenagers at the time.

Bui was the last of the three suspects to be convicted in the case. According to the Associated Press, Gavin Seymour, 19, and Dillon Siebert, who was 14 at the time of the crime, also pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Seymour was sentenced to 40 years in prison while Siebert was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention and seven years in a state prison program for young inmates, the outlet reports.

Following his death, Djibril was remembered by the University of Colorado, where he had obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.

“Djibril Diol immigrated to the United States from Senegal to pursue college studies, and he fulfilled his goal at Colorado State University in December 2018, when he was recognized as an outstanding graduate of the Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering,” the university said in a statement at the time.

“He had considered pursuing a graduate degree and dreamed of one day using his engineering knowledge to improve infrastructure in rural Senegal,” the statement added.

Djibril’s close friend and CSU alumnus Ousman Ba described him in the university’s statement as a “loving, joyful person who just enjoyed life and was a really good friend, a leader, a brother.”

Loved ones also launched a GoFundMe campaign following the Diol family deaths. It raised more than $218,000 in donations to help with burial expenses.

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