Denver teen gets 40-year sentence in deadly house fire set over stolen cellphone

DENVER — A Colorado teen was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison for his role in a 2020 house fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family, including two children.

Gavin Seymour, 19, of Denver, pleaded guilty in January to the crime, which authorities said was set into motion by a stolen cellphone. The blaze killed Djibril Diol, 29, his wife, Adja Diol, 23, and their 3-year-old daughter, Khadija.

Djibril Diol’s sister, Hassan Diol, 25, and her infant daughter, Hawa Baye, also died in the fire.

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According to police, Seymour’s friend and alleged co-conspirator, Kevin Bui, had traced his stolen cellphone to North Truckee Street, where an app pinpointed its location at the home in which the Diol family lived.

Unbeknownst to Bui, Seymour and a third offender, Dillion Siebert, the app was wrong. No one in the Diol home had any connection to either Bui or the stolen phone.

The teens, wearing masks to hide their faces, went to the home around 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 5, 2020, and used gasoline to set the house on fire. Bui told detectives he learned the next day on the news that the residents were not the people who had robbed him.

Seymour was initially charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder, along with several other lesser charges. His January guilty plea reduced the charges to a single count of second-degree murder, according to The Associated Press.

He faced between 16 and 40 years in prison.

Denver District Court Judge Karen Brody gave him the maximum sentence allowed under the law.

“This is a tragedy that is, I’m sure for everyone involved, incomprehensible,” Brody said, according to The Denver Post. “There was a loss of the most innocent of lives.”

Amadou Beye, husband of Hassan Diol and father of Hawa Baye, told CBS News in January that the sentencing range for Seymour was not strong enough. He said he believed that race was a factor in the prosecution.

“It’s just because they’re white. And I know that. And it hurts me a lot,” Beye said. “As a Black man, if an African man killed an entire white people family they (are) going to die in jail. So this is not justice.”

Seymour and Bui, who was described by police as the ringleader, were 16 at the time of the murders. Both were charged as adults.

Bui’s trial is pending. He faces a total of 28 felony charges that include multiple counts of first-degree murder.

Siebert was 14 at the time of the crime. The teen, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, was sentenced in February 2023 to serve three years in a juvenile facility and another seven years in an adult program designed for young offenders.

If he violates the terms of his sentence, he would be required to serve 23 years in prison, according to the AP.

At Siebert’s sentencing, Beye told the court that he contemplates suicide every day and needs medication to sleep at night, the AP reported. Beye, who was in Senegal when his family died, had sent his pregnant wife to the U.S. before him and planned to follow when he could.

Beye’s young daughter died before he had a chance to meet her.

“My life doesn’t make sense anymore,” Beye told the court. “Why my wife? Why my daughter?”

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