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A man from Colorado was sentenced to 60 years in prison on Tuesday for starting a house fire that killed five members of an extended Senegalese family, deeply affecting the victims’ loved ones and friends.
A relative of the victims, Amadou Beye, expressed his dissatisfaction with the sentence, saying, “That’s not enough. And that will always run through my head. Every time I think about 60 years for someone who killed five people, it’s going to make me suffer again. But since there’s nothing I can do about it, I’ll just… God will give us justice sooner or later, inshallah. But this is not justice, and I’m not grateful for justice. But I will respect it,” he said.
Kevin Bui, now 20, was the last of three teens charged in the August 5, 2020 fire to be sentenced after pleading guilty to lesser charges in a plea deal. Officials report that Bui, who had been a robbery victim while trying to buy a gun, mistakenly believed he had found his stolen iPhone at the house and carefully planned his revenge. However, he did not confirm he was targeting the correct person.
Rachel Lanzen, one of Bui’s attorneys, claimed that Bui was not the one who started the fire, instead blaming the youngest member of the trio. However, law enforcement officials refuted this, stating that Bui admitted to starting the fire and was burned in the process.
Prosecutors identified Bui as the ringleader of the plot. He told investigators he had been mugged of his phone, cash, and shoes while trying to buy a gun before deciding to set the fire, according to earlier testimony.
At the time, he was helping his older sister, Tanya Bui, distribute drugs, as per federal court records. The sister’s drug operation was uncovered when law enforcement searched their suburban Denver home as part of the fire investigation.
Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said, “When you have the loss of lives like this in such a callous and premeditated way, it’s different from cases where there’s a crime of passion or a reason for the behavior. But this was planned. It happened in the middle of the night when you know people are asleep and in the house.”
In May, after failing to challenge key evidence in the case, Bui pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.
Prosecutors dropped sixty other charges, including first-degree murder, and recommended a 60-year sentence for Bui. Family members reluctantly supported the agreement, seeing it as the best way to resolve the ongoing criminal case.
“I just want him to suffer for the rest of his life, and if he gets a chance to die a hard death, to do so,” Beye said in an interview.
Last year, Dillon Siebert, who was 14 when the fire occurred, received a three-year sentence in juvenile detention and a seven-year sentence in a state prison program for youth. Gavin Seymour, now 19, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in March after pleading guilty to one count of second-degree murder.
The victims’ bodies were found on the first floor near the front door, having apparently tried to escape the fire, while members of another family living in the house managed to escape.
At the time of the fire, Amadou Beye was in Senegal awaiting a visa to join his wife and meet his baby born in the U.S.
Nancy Mbamalu
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