DENVER — A Denver judge ruled evidence received after a search warrant served to Google is permissible in the murder case of a teenage suspect.
On Aug. 5, 2020, a house in Green Valley Ranch was destroyed in an early morning fire. Five members of a Senegalese family, including a two-year-old girl and a six-month-old girl, were killed in the fire. Three people survived the blaze by jumping out of a window. Denver Police detectives determined the fire was intentionally set.
The case went cold for months until, police say, information they received after serving a search warrant to Google helped lead them to three teenage suspects.
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Gavin Seymour, then 16 years old, Kevin Bui, also 16 years old at the time, and an unnamed 15-year-old boy were arrested in connection with the case.
Police said the search warrant served on Google showed that the suspects had searched for the exact address -- 5312 N. Truckee St. -- multiple times in the two weeks before the fire.
A computer app the teens used to locate Bui's stolen cellphone mistakenly led them to search for and then burn the wrong house, prosecutors said.
Attorneys for Seymour made a motion in August of this year to exclude the Google evidence. They argued that the search warrant was too broad and violated Seymour's Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. Seymour's attorneys said up until that search warrant, police had no suspects in the case.
Seymour's trial is scheduled to begin in January. Kevin Bui's trial is scheduled to begin in December.
Djibril Diol, 29, his 23-year-old wife Adja Diol, their 2-year-old daughter Khadija died in the fire. Djibril's sister 25-year-old Hassan Diol and her 6-month-old daughter, Hawa Beye also died.
Previous reporting by Matt Jablow, Steve Staeger and Janet Oravetz contributed to this article.
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