Final arsonist in Colorado fire that killed 5 members of Senegalese family is sentenced to 60 years in prison

Kane, a friend of the Diol family for more than a decade, said he’s been acting as an interpreter throughout the court cases, talking for the family and filling them in on the courtroom details. He said the years of hearings have not allowed members of the Senegalese community to mourn, forcing them to revolve their lives around the courtroom.

“I will never get out of my mind how Djibril’s mom hugged me and just screamed,” he said, remembering his visit to the Diol family’s Senegal home after the deaths.

Speaking through Kane over the phone from Senegal, Djibril and Hassan’s father — Hanady Diol — said the fire still feels like yesterday, even as the fourth anniversary approaches.

“Since this has happened, I am a dead person that isn’t buried yet,” Hanady Diol told the court.

Bui pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in March, a plea agreement that saw prosecutors drop 60 other charges, including multiple counts of first-degree murder, assault, burglary and arson. The agreement also dismissed a second, separate case in which the then-18-year-old was accused of bringing drugs into jail.

Brody sentenced Bui to 30 years in prison and a mandatory five-year parole for each count of second-degree murder during Tuesday’s hearing, a length the defense and prosecution agreed on and stipulated in the plea agreement. The 20-year-old could have faced as many as 48 years in prison on each count.

“This is an incomprehensible and senseless tragedy,” Brody said. “The loss of innocent lives is horrific.”

Although his parents sat on the hard benches of the Denver courthouse when Bui plead guilty in March, the duo watched the sentencing hearing online Tuesday, listening with the help of a Vietnamese interpreter.

“I imagined what I would say so many times, but I still can’t piece together any words that fully describe the pain,” Bui said in a statement to the court. “No matter what I do, no matter how much time it takes for lives to resume or for the media to forget these people, the scars will still be there.”

Bui took full responsibility for the arson and deaths Tuesday.

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