Three Colorado teenagers accused of killing a 20-year-old woman by throwing a huge rock through her windshield have pleaded not guilty to her murder.
Alexa Bartell, 20, died when Joseph Koenig, Nicholas ‘Mitch’ Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak, all 18, allegedly threw a garden rock at her car in Arvada, Colorado, on April 19, 2023.
Appearing in Jefferson County District Court on Monday, the teens with extreme nonchalance pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder; Koenig also faces four new charges of attempted murder and assault for separate rock-throwing incidents.
Prosecutors say the men threw giant rocks and hit six other cars that night, but all other drivers were unharmed.
Bartell was talking on the phone with a friend when a rock hit her car and she fell silent. Her friend tracked her phone and drove to the scene to find her dead in her car, which had gone off the road into a field.
Alexa Bartell, 20, died when a landscaping rock crashed through her windshield in Arvada, Colorado, on April 19.
An image reveals the damage caused to Bartell’s car during the attack
Joseph Koenig, Nicholas ‘Mitch’ Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak, all 18, are charged with murder.
The men will be tried separately and Karol-Chick will appear in court for the first time in June.
Four new charges of two counts of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree assault were also filed against Koenig after two more victims came forward for rock-throwing incidents in February 2023.
In court on Monday, prosecutors said Karol-Chick had admitted that he and Koenig had thrown rocks ten nights last year, but that they had only caused property damage.
In a previous court appearance, prosecutor Padraic Emerine said: “This was an extremely reckless and irresponsible situation that the defendant was involved in and which, unfortunately, cost the life of a very innocent and very young woman in this case. “.
An arrest affidavit from the sheriff’s office said that after the fatal attack, Kwak told the others, “We have to go back and look at that.” He then allegedly took a photo of his car as a “souvenir.”
A friend of the trio told police he had watched them several hours earlier loading a truck with landscaping rocks taken from the Walmart parking lot. The friend claimed the three boys picked up “as many as they could carry.”
He said he knew “something bad was going to happen,” so he asked Koenig, Karol-Chik and Kwak to take him home.
The three alleged killers then patrolled the roads in the area and looked for passing cars to attack.
Kwak said they would use “marine terms” when throwing the rocks, adding: “Mitch was saying things like ‘left contact’ before Joseph threw the rock at a car on the left side of his.”
He said the rock that killed Bartell made a “very loud noise … like a railgun” when it hit his windshield. A blood-stained rock was discovered next to the young woman’s yellow Chevy Spark.
A friend described Koenig as someone who liked to create “chaos” and who often acted in destructive ways.
“Joseph and Mitch talked about how they were now ‘blood brothers’ and were never able to talk about the incident,” Kwak added.
The three reportedly met the next day to “clear up their stories.”
Karol-Chik and Kwak were interviewed by detectives and each gave different versions of who threw the rock. Koenig refused to talk to police.
The affidavit says one of the suspects said he felt “a hint of guilt” and revealed that the men were tracked using data from cell phone towers in the area.
After the attack that killed Bartell, Kwak allegedly told the others, “We have to go back and look at that.” He then took a photo of the car, which had gone off the road, as a “souvenir.”
Bartell was driving the Chevy Spark when a rock crashed through the front windshield.
Police offer $17,000 reward for Bartell’s killers
He added that stones had been thrown at vehicles on about ten occasions since February. Six other cars were damaged and two more drivers were injured the night Bartell died.
Lyft and Uber driver Nathan Tipton was unharmed after being attacked.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference, he said he was heading south on Highway 93, near the Jefferson and Boulder county lines, around 10:15 p.m.
“I saw two vehicles going north, but all I could see were the headlights, it was a dark road,” he said. And then a big bang: it sounded like a shotgun blast. I got really scared.’
He said he stopped immediately and saw that both driver’s side windows of his minivan were broken.
‘It is awful. “No one should lose their child to a random act of any kind,” she added.
A reward of $17,000 had previously been offered for information.