In a combination of revenge and pettiness, a teenager took an action that had devastating consequences for himself and his victim. The teenager, to recover his stolen device, set fire to a home, which resulted in the deaths of five people and left three others injured.
In July 2020, someone stole 16-year-old Kevin Huy Bui’s iPhone. He became very angry and desperate to find his phone. So, he installed the popular Apple application, Find My iPhone. Using the app, he started tracking the stolen device. The app traced the phone to a house on N. Truckee Street in Denver, Colorado.
Kevin, not knowing what he was walking into, decided to enlist the help of his friends, Dillon Siebert and Gavin Seymour. According to reports, Siebert and Seymour were 14 and 16, respectively, at the time of the incident. The three proceeded to organize a premeditated attack.
On August 5, 2020, at around 2:30 am, the trio went to the address the app had indicated and set it on fire. The arson attack led to the deaths of five individuals who were Senegalese immigrants. The fire victims were 29-year-old Djibril Diol, his wife Adja Diol, 23, and their almost 2-year-old daughter, Khadija Diol.
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The other two victims were 25-year-old Hassan Diol and her daughter, Hawa Beye, who was seven months old. Three other victims were lucky to have escaped using a window on the upper floor. Although they survived, they suffered injuries, some as severe as broken bones.
However, to make matters worse, Kevin and his friends had the wrong address. Investigators tried without success to arrest the perpetrators until they asked Google to release the information of anyone who had searched the house’s address days before the fire.
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Google provided them with the IP addresses of those who had searched the building within 15 days before the fire. Consequently, this helped investigators to narrow down their search and arrest the trio. A neighbor gave the police camera footage of the three assailants, spotted wearing masks.
In 2022, Siebert, who was 16, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He was given an 11-year sentence, although he will be eligible for parole sometime in February 2029. Given that he was a minor at the time of his sentencing, he will serve three years in a juvenile prison and his remaining term in a state prison.
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Seymour pleaded guilty to the allegations in January 2024 and received a 40-year prison sentence. As of Tuesday, May 21, 2024, he remains incarcerated until he is eligible for parole in November 2050.
Kevin, the mastermind behind the attack, was the last of three to plead guilty to the charge. He pleaded guilty in May 2024. He remains incarcerated in the Denver detention center with no bail. The judge is expected to give his verdict on Kevin’s sentencing on Tuesday, July 2, 2024.
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