A Denver District Court judge has upheld a group of search warrants used by police that led them to three teenagers now facing charges connected to the deaths of five family members in a 2020 house fire.

The victims of the intentionally set fire in Green Valley Ranch were Djibril Diol, 29, Adja Diol, 23, their 21-month-old daughter, Khadija, Hassan Diol, 25, and her 7-month-old daughter, Hawa Beye.

Attorneys for Gavin Seymour, now 18, challenged warrants granted to investigators that allowed them to obtain information from web searches, cell phone data, social media information and other electronic evidence that eventually led to the arrests of the three teenagers. His attorneys argued the warrants were overly broad and violated protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Judge Martin Egelhoff disagreed in a hearing Wednesday afternoon, ruling the warrants were narrowly tailored to specify the type of evidence police sought. He also upheld a search warrant for Seymour’s home for the same reason. He denied a motion by Seymour’s attorneys to suppress statements he made to police that included information about his cell phone before they advised Seymour of his rights.

The three teenagers face premeditated murder charges and dozens of other counts for setting the fire in August 2020 for what they intended as revenge for a robbery a few weeks earlier, according to information revealed during a probable cause hearing last year. His co-defendant Kevin Bui’s phone had been stolen, and he used the Find My iPhone application to track it to a location he believed was 5312 North Truckee Street, where several members of a Senegalese family lived.

But he did not find the right house, which the teenagers did not realize until news reports of the deaths broke, authorities said.

Prosecutors charged Seymour and Bui as adults, who were both 16 at the time of the fire. The third teenager was 15 at the time and charged as a juvenile.

After months of investigation, police got a warrant for Google searches in Colorado of the home’s address. Egelhoff said they worked with Google to put together a probable cause affidavit for the warrant with which the company would cooperate, and police received an anonymized list of IP addresses associated with searches.

When the results of the warrant led them to the three teenagers as people of interest, more warrants for electronic information such as cell phone data followed. Egelhoff called the warrants all “interconnected” and said they flowed from the discoveries based on the warrant for keyword searches.

“The remaining warrants either rise or fall under the validity of that particular search warrant,” he said.

“It is my judgment in this case that the police did exactly what we want the police to do. Be careful, be specific, be particular and go through the judicial process to obtain information,” he later added

Egelhoff did not set a trial date for Seymour on Wednesday. Seymour has pleaded not guilty, but prosecutor Joe Morales said the parties will discuss a potential resolution to the case. Egelhoff set a status hearing for Jan. 20.

The trial set for Dec. 9 in Bui’s case has been postponed, and his defense attorneys indicated they will continue negotiating a potential resolution.

Bui also faces separate charges connected to being caught with nearly 100 suspected fentanyl-laced pills in June following a detainee’s overdose in Denver’s detention center.