Current:Home > MyTeen pleads guilty in Denver house fire that killed 5 from Senegal-LoTradeCoin
Teen pleads guilty in Denver house fire that killed 5 from Senegal
View Date:2024-12-23 21:03:28
DENVER (AP) — One of three teens charged with starting a house fire in suburban Denver that killed five people — apparently out of revenge for a stolen cellphone that was mistakenly traced to the residence — pleaded guilty Friday to one count of second-degree murder.
Gavin Seymour, 19, pleaded guilty for his role in the Aug. 5, 2020, fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family. Under a plea agreement, he faces between 16 and 40 years in prison when he is sentenced on March 15. The plea deal calls for another 60 other charges to be dismissed, The Denver Post reported.
Seymour and two other teenagers — Kevin Bui and Dillon Siebert — were charged with setting the fire in the middle of the night, killing Djibril and Adja Diol and their 2-year-old daughter, Khadija, along with Hassan Diol and her 6-month-old daughter, Hawa Baye. Three other people escaped by jumping from the second floor of the home.
Siebert, who was 14 at the time of the fire, was 17 last February when he was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention and seven years in a state prison program for young inmates. Seymour and Bui, the alleged ringleader, were both 16 at the time of the fire.
The investigation of the fire dragged on for months without any leads. Fears that the fire had been a hate crime led many Senegalese immigrants to install security cameras at their homes in case they could also be targeted.
The boys were identified as suspects after police obtained a search warrant asking Google for which accounts had searched the home’s address within 15 days of the fire.
Bui told investigators he had been robbed the month before the fire while trying to buy a gun and had traced his iPhone to the home using an app, court records said. He admitted to setting the fire, only to find out the next day through news coverage that the victims were not the people who robbed him, according to police.
Attorneys for Seymour and Bui challenged the search warrant, but the Colorado Supreme Court upheld the search for this case.
Bui’s arraignment is set for Feb. 1, according to court records.
veryGood! (19311)
Related
- Round 2 in the Trump-vs-Mexico matchup looks ominous for Mexico
- Fact checking 'Cassandro': Is Bad Bunny's character in the lucha libre film a real person?
- 2 adults, 3-year-old child killed in shooting over apparent sale of a dog in Florida
- The Secrets of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas' Enduring Love
- Zendaya Shares When She Feels Extra Safe With Boyfriend Tom Holland
- Europe keeps Solheim Cup after first-ever tie against US. Home-crowd favorite Ciganda thrives again
- RYDER CUP ’23: A look inside the walls of the 11th-century Marco Simone castle
- Mosquito populations surge in parts of California after tropical storms and triple-digit heat
- Secret Service Agent Allegedly Took Ex to Barack Obama’s Beach House
- Low and slow: Expressing Latino lowrider culture on two wheels
Ranking
- A herniated disc is painful, debilitating. How to get relief.
- Thousands of Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh as Turkish president is set to visit Azerbaijan
- High-speed rail was touted as a game-changer in Britain. Costs are making the government think twice
- Young climate activists challenging 32 governments to get their day in court
- The USDA is testing raw milk for the avian flu. Is raw milk safe?
- Usher to headline the 2024 Super Bowl halftime show in Las Vegas
- 3 adults and 2 children are killed when a Florida train strikes their SUV
- Libya’s top prosecutor says 8 officials jailed as part of investigation into dams’ deadly collapse
Recommendation
-
RHOBH's Kyle Richards Addresses PK Kemsley Cheating Rumors in the Best Way Possible
-
First refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh arrive in Armenia following Azerbaijan’s military offensive
-
First Lahaina residents return home to destruction after deadly wildfires
-
Taylor Swift turns out to see Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs play Chicago Bears
-
Today’s Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker and More React to Craig Melvin Replacing Hoda Kotb as Co-Anchor
-
Marcus Freeman explains why Notre Dame had 10 players on field for Ohio State's winning TD
-
The Rise of Digital Gold by WEOWNCOIN
-
Spain's Carlota Ciganda delivers dream finish as Europe retains Solheim Cup