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Ringleader of fire that killed 5 in Senegalese family, ripping hole in the community, gets 60 years

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Ringleader of fire that killed 5 in Senegalese family, ripping hole in the community, gets 60 years
News

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Ringleader of fire that killed 5 in Senegalese family, ripping hole in the community, gets 60 years

2024-07-03 08:47 Last Updated At:08:50

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado man was sentenced to 60 years in prison Tuesday for killing five members of an extended Senegalese family in a house fire, a crime which the victims’ friends and relatives say has forever changed their lives and their community, both in the U.S. and in the west African nation.

Kevin Bui, now 20, was the last of three teens charged in the Aug. 5, 2020, fire to be sentenced after pleading guilty to reduced charges in a plea deal. Authorities say Bui, who had recently been robbed while trying to buy a gun, mistakenly thought he had tracked down his stolen iPhone to the home and carefully plotted his retribution. But he neglected to make sure he was targeting the actual thief.

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District Attorney Beth McCann speaks to the media in Denver on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after a Colorado man was sentenced to 60 years in prison for starting a house fire that killed five members of an extended Senegalese family. ( AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado man was sentenced to 60 years in prison Tuesday for killing five members of an extended Senegalese family in a house fire, a crime which the victims’ friends and relatives say has forever changed their lives and their community, both in the U.S. and in the west African nation.

Supporters speak to the media in Denver on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after a Colorado man was sentenced to 60 years in prison for starting a house fire that killed five members of an extended Senegalese family. AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

Supporters speak to the media in Denver on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after a Colorado man was sentenced to 60 years in prison for starting a house fire that killed five members of an extended Senegalese family. AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

This 2022 booking photo, provided by Denver District Attorney's Office, shows Kevin Bui. Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after pleading guilty on May 17 to murder charges for starting a 2020 house fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family. (Denver District Attorney's Office via AP)

This 2022 booking photo, provided by Denver District Attorney's Office, shows Kevin Bui. Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after pleading guilty on May 17 to murder charges for starting a 2020 house fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family. (Denver District Attorney's Office via AP)

This undated photo, provided by Amadou Beye, shows his late wife, Hassan Diol. Diol was killed, along with their infant daughter, Hawa Beye, and three other members of Diol's extended family, in a house fire set by three young men in 2020. Kevin Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after he plead guilty to the murders on May 17. (Amadou Beye via AP)

This undated photo, provided by Amadou Beye, shows his late wife, Hassan Diol. Diol was killed, along with their infant daughter, Hawa Beye, and three other members of Diol's extended family, in a house fire set by three young men in 2020. Kevin Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after he plead guilty to the murders on May 17. (Amadou Beye via AP)

This 2022 booking photo, provided by Denver District Attorney's Office, shows Kevin Bui. Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after pleading guilty on May 17 to murder charges for starting a 2020 house fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family. (Denver District Attorney's Office via AP)

This 2022 booking photo, provided by Denver District Attorney's Office, shows Kevin Bui. Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after pleading guilty on May 17 to murder charges for starting a 2020 house fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family. (Denver District Attorney's Office via AP)

FILE- Abou Diol holds his head next to a picture of his brother, Djibril Diol, after a Denver Police news conference Jan. 27, 2021, at Denver Police Crime Laboratory in Denver. Kevin Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after he pleaded guilty to murder charges for starting a 2020 house fire that killed five members Diol's family. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via AP, File)

FILE- Abou Diol holds his head next to a picture of his brother, Djibril Diol, after a Denver Police news conference Jan. 27, 2021, at Denver Police Crime Laboratory in Denver. Kevin Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after he pleaded guilty to murder charges for starting a 2020 house fire that killed five members Diol's family. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via AP, File)

FILE - The house where five Senegalese immigrants were murdered in a fire is surrounded by old bouquets, stuffed animals and other remembrances, Jan. 27, 2021, in Denver. Kevin Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after pleading guilty to murder charges for starting the 2020 fire. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP, File)

FILE - The house where five Senegalese immigrants were murdered in a fire is surrounded by old bouquets, stuffed animals and other remembrances, Jan. 27, 2021, in Denver. Kevin Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after pleading guilty to murder charges for starting the 2020 fire. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP, File)

Instead, sleeping inside the home in the middle of the night were members of three immigrant families who were working to support their families back home and had nothing to do with the robbery. The family that owned the house managed to escape but all the members of two linked families renting from them were killed — Djibril Diol, 29; his 23-year-old wife, Adja Diol; and their 22-month-old daughter, Khadija, as well as Djibril Diol's sister, Hassan Diol, 25, and her 7-month-old daughter, Hawa.

Hamady Diol, the father of Djibril and Hassan Diol, spoke during the sentencing hearing by phone from Senegal about how he needs pills to sleep after losing five members of his family.

“I'm a dead person that's not buried yet,” he said in Pulaar through a translator.

The bodies of the victims were found on the first floor of the home near the front door, having apparently tried to escape the flames. One of the homeowners who escaped heard Djibril Diol yelling to direct people out of the house. He was an engineer who was working on a large rebuilding of Interstate 70 in Denver and was well-loved for helping fellow immigrants.

Adja Diol and her sister-in-law, Hassan Diol, both worked opposite shifts at Amazon so they could care for each other's children and continue to send support to their families in Senegal. They dreamed of going to school to become nurses.

At the time of the fire, Hassan Diol's husband, Amadou Beye, was in Senegal awaiting a visa to join his wife and meet his baby, who was born in the U.S.

In court, Beye called Bui a “big terrorist” who did not deserve to eat, sleep or talk to his family while in prison. Beye, who was granted permission to move to the U.S. after the fire, said he tries to avoid being alone when he's not working to avoid thinking about his loss. He said he wears a pendant with the name of God on it as a reminder not to hurt himself.

"We can’t be normal because of you,” he said, turned toward Bui, despite Judge Karen L. Brody urging him to address her.

Bui, listening while sitting with his lawyers, did not appear to show any reaction to Beye or the other speakers during the hearing.

When he was able to speak, Bui said he was an “ignorant knucklehead” at the time of the fire. He said he could not fathom what it would be like to have family members ripped from you and recited the names of all the victims.

But he pushed back on the idea that he was a monster or a terrorist and instead said, “My heart beats the same as yours.”

“I have no excuses and nobody to blame but myself,” he said.

One of Bui's lawyers, Rachel Lanzen, told Brody that his involvement with the fire was uncharacteristic of a young man who is polite and respectful and was raised by hard-working immigrants from Vietnam. She said Bui did not set the fire himself, pinning the blame on the youngest of the three friends charged. Police disputed that, saying that Bui confessed to starting it himself and was burned in the process.

Bui, who prosecutors say was the ringleader of the plan, told investigators he had been robbed of his phone, money and shoes while trying to buy a gun before deciding to start the fire, according to previous testimony. Around that time, he had been helping his older sister, Tanya Bui, deliver drugs, according to federal court documents. The sister’s enterprise was accidentally discovered when police searched their family’s suburban Denver home as part of the fire investigation.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Courtney Johnston emphasized the vindictiveness of Bui's plan and said it was not just about getting his phone back. Seeming to know what was at stake, Bui sent one of his friends a message a few days before the fire talking about possibly ruining their futures by burning the house down, she noted.

After he was arrested, he only expressed regret that he had targeted the wrong people, killing immigrants like his relatives, not that he had set the fire, she said.

“He was trying to exact revenge on the person that he thought took his phone and he didn’t care who else it took down,” said Johnston. She said the crime had “ripped a hole” in the city's Senegalese immigrant community.

In May, after a failed effort to challenge key evidence in the case, Bui pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder. Sixty other charges Bui had faced, including first-degree murder, were dropped by prosecutors, who recommended that Bui receive a 60-year sentence.

Relatives reluctantly supported the deal, seeing it as the best way to resolve the long-running criminal case.

Last year, Dillon Siebert, who was 14 at the time of the fire, was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention and seven years in a state prison program for young inmates. In March, Gavin Seymour, 19, was sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of second-degree murder.

Surveillance video showed three suspects wearing full face masks and dark hoodies outside the home just before the fire started, but the investigation dragged on for months without any other leads. Amid fears that the fire had been a hate crime, some Senegalese immigrants installed security cameras at their homes in case they could also be targeted. The son of the home's owner, who was working the overnight shift at a 7-Eleven when the fire broke out, was also under suspicion until Bui and his friends were identified and arrested.

Police did not believe the home, tucked in among many similar ones on a street in a dense subdivision, was picked at random. They tried a new and controversial strategy — asking Google to reveal which IP addresses had searched for the home's address within 15 days of the fire. Five of them were in Colorado, and police obtained the names of those people through another search warrant, eventually identifying Bui, Seymour and Siebert as suspects.

In October, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld the search of Google users’ keyword history, an approach critics have called a digital dragnet that threatens to undermine people’s privacy and their constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. The court cautioned it was not making a “broad proclamation” on the constitutionality of such search warrants and emphasized it was ruling on the facts of just this one case.

District Attorney Beth McCann speaks to the media in Denver on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after a Colorado man was sentenced to 60 years in prison for starting a house fire that killed five members of an extended Senegalese family. ( AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

District Attorney Beth McCann speaks to the media in Denver on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after a Colorado man was sentenced to 60 years in prison for starting a house fire that killed five members of an extended Senegalese family. ( AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

Supporters speak to the media in Denver on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after a Colorado man was sentenced to 60 years in prison for starting a house fire that killed five members of an extended Senegalese family. AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

Supporters speak to the media in Denver on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after a Colorado man was sentenced to 60 years in prison for starting a house fire that killed five members of an extended Senegalese family. AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

This 2022 booking photo, provided by Denver District Attorney's Office, shows Kevin Bui. Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after pleading guilty on May 17 to murder charges for starting a 2020 house fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family. (Denver District Attorney's Office via AP)

This 2022 booking photo, provided by Denver District Attorney's Office, shows Kevin Bui. Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after pleading guilty on May 17 to murder charges for starting a 2020 house fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family. (Denver District Attorney's Office via AP)

This undated photo, provided by Amadou Beye, shows his late wife, Hassan Diol. Diol was killed, along with their infant daughter, Hawa Beye, and three other members of Diol's extended family, in a house fire set by three young men in 2020. Kevin Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after he plead guilty to the murders on May 17. (Amadou Beye via AP)

This undated photo, provided by Amadou Beye, shows his late wife, Hassan Diol. Diol was killed, along with their infant daughter, Hawa Beye, and three other members of Diol's extended family, in a house fire set by three young men in 2020. Kevin Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after he plead guilty to the murders on May 17. (Amadou Beye via AP)

This 2022 booking photo, provided by Denver District Attorney's Office, shows Kevin Bui. Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after pleading guilty on May 17 to murder charges for starting a 2020 house fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family. (Denver District Attorney's Office via AP)

This 2022 booking photo, provided by Denver District Attorney's Office, shows Kevin Bui. Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after pleading guilty on May 17 to murder charges for starting a 2020 house fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family. (Denver District Attorney's Office via AP)

FILE- Abou Diol holds his head next to a picture of his brother, Djibril Diol, after a Denver Police news conference Jan. 27, 2021, at Denver Police Crime Laboratory in Denver. Kevin Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after he pleaded guilty to murder charges for starting a 2020 house fire that killed five members Diol's family. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via AP, File)

FILE- Abou Diol holds his head next to a picture of his brother, Djibril Diol, after a Denver Police news conference Jan. 27, 2021, at Denver Police Crime Laboratory in Denver. Kevin Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after he pleaded guilty to murder charges for starting a 2020 house fire that killed five members Diol's family. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via AP, File)

FILE - The house where five Senegalese immigrants were murdered in a fire is surrounded by old bouquets, stuffed animals and other remembrances, Jan. 27, 2021, in Denver. Kevin Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after pleading guilty to murder charges for starting the 2020 fire. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP, File)

FILE - The house where five Senegalese immigrants were murdered in a fire is surrounded by old bouquets, stuffed animals and other remembrances, Jan. 27, 2021, in Denver. Kevin Bui has been sentenced to 60 years in prison, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, after pleading guilty to murder charges for starting the 2020 fire. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP, File)

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru's Congress on Thursday passed a law establishing a statute of limitations for crimes against humanity committed before 2002, a decision that human rights organizations have warned could encourage impunity and thwart investigations into serious abuses.

It could also benefit figures including former president Alberto Fujimori and retired military personnel accused of — or even convicted for — crimes committed between 1980 and 2000 during an internal armed conflict that left thousands of victims.

According to the Peruvian prosecutor's office, the legislation will have a direct impact on 550 victims and 600 cases, including investigations and judicial processes that would be archived or dismissed by statute of limitations.

Fujimori, who governed Peru from 1990 to 2000, was sentenced in 2009 on charges of human rights abuses. He was accused of being the mastermind behind the killings of the 25 Peruvians while the government fought the Shining Path communist rebels.

The new law, in fact, was promoted by the right-wing Popular Force (FP) party, led by Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former president Fujimori, and it states that “no one will be prosecuted, condemned or sanctioned for war crimes or crimes against humanity committed prior to July 1, 2002."

Initially approved in June, the law needed a second vote that took place Thursday.

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte can either enact the law or return it to Congress with further recommendations. Boluarte has not said what she will do.

Several lawmakers who were military and navy personnel during the armed internal conflict support the law.

The Institute of Democracy and Human Rights of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru said in a statement that “the law aims to limit the application of internal justice through the extinction of any criminal liability due to the passage of time.”

In June, several human rights organizations in Peru warned that if the law were to be approved, impunity would be promoted in all cases that are part of the internal armed conflict from 1980 to 2000, including a famous trial in which former President Fujimori was accused of the 1992 massacre of six farmers executed by a clandestine group of soldiers.

Earlier this year, former Peruvian intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos and a close aide of Fujimori was sentenced to 19 years and eight months in prison in connection with the 1992 massacre.

According to a truth commission that studied the period of the conflict, the victims were mostly Indigenous people caught in clashes between security forces and members of the Shining Path rebel group. The commission estimates that the conflict killed 70,000 people.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Peru's President Dina Boluarte gives a statement to the press during an official visit by Ecuadorean counterpart Daniel Noboa to the government palace in Lima, Peru, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Peru's President Dina Boluarte gives a statement to the press during an official visit by Ecuadorean counterpart Daniel Noboa to the government palace in Lima, Peru, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

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