One of the three teens who killed five Senegalese family members — including a baby and a toddler — when he set a blaze to their Denver home was sentenced to 40 years behind bars Friday.
Gavin Seymour, 19, was handed the maximum possible term for the second-degree murder charge after dozens of grieving family members spoke against the murderous teen.
He pleaded guilty last month for setting fire to the house in the middle of the night in August 2020, killing Djibril Diol, 29, his wife Adja Diol, 23, and their daughter Khadija Diol, 1, along with Djibril’s sister, Hassan Diol, 25, and her 6-month-old daughter Hawa Baye.
“Even if you kill five sheep or goats, you should get a maximum sentence,” Hanady Diol, father to Djibril and Hassan, told the court through a translator over the phone from Senegal, the Dever Post reported.
“This person here, they are talking about 40 or 30 years. That just means there is no justice there. There is no judging that the people who died are human beings.”
Seymour was 16 when he carried out the dastardly act, which prosecutors said was at the direction of friend Kevin Bui, who mistakenly thought someone who had stolen his phone lived in the home.
The two 16-year-olds and Dillon Siebert, then 14, planned the fire for weeks, according to investigators.
Only three people escaped the fire by jumping from the second floor of the home.
KDVR
Djibril Diol tried to lead his wife and 1-year-old daughter through the flames, making it down a set of stairs before they collapsed not far from the door out, prosecutors said.
Seymour knew he and his friends had killed the family the following morning — online records showed he read news about the deaths and searched for information about the prison sentence for murder.
It took several months for investigators to pin down the teenagers, who were identified after police obtained a search warrant asking Google for which accounts had searched the home’s address within 15 days of the fire.
“This is by far the worst, most senseless murder investigation I have ever investigated,” Denver police Detective Neil Baker said in court
“I can’t think of any other one that is more deserving of a maximum sentence allowed… There are five victims. Two were babies.”
Seymour accepted a plea deal in January that set a sentencing range of between 16 and 40 years.
He apologized in court Friday for his role in the fire.
“If I could go back and prevent all this I would,” Seymour said. “There is not a moment that goes by that I don’t feel extreme guilt and remorse for my actions. … I want to say how truly sorry I am to the family members and community for all the harm I’ve done.”
Siebert, who was 14 at the time of the fire, was 17 when he was sentenced in February 2023 to three years in juvenile detention and seven years in a state prison program for young inmates.
Bui faces multiple counts of first-degree murder and is next due in court on March 21.
