Three Colorado Men to Face Trial for Alleged Involvement in Rock-Throwing Incident That Led to Fatal Crash

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A judge has ruled that three individuals will face trial for their purported roles in the death of a 20-year-old motorist. The victim suffered a fatal head injury after a rock shattered her windshield and struck her. The decision came from 1st Judicial District Judge Christopher Zenisek, following a review of the evidence presented by investigators.

Joseph Koenig, Nicholas Karol-Chik, and Zachary Kwak have been charged with first-degree murder for their alleged involvement in the tragic demise of Alexa Bartell on April 19. The ruling also indicated sufficient grounds to charge the trio with attempted murder in relation to six additional vehicles targeted in rock-throwing episodes on the same night. Minor injuries were sustained by three individuals in those separate incidents.

In a separate but related charge, Koenig and Karol-Chick, both 19, will additionally be tried for attempted murder and attempted assault. This is in connection to an event on April 1 where the pair is alleged to have thrown a landscaping statue at a vehicle containing a family. Kwak, 18, is not implicated in this particular event.

Prosecution claims that the accused drove in Karol-Chik’s pickup truck on the night Bartell was fatally injured, filling it with landscaping rocks sourced from a Walmart store. After witnessing Bartell’s vehicle veer off the road post-impact, the individuals returned to capture a photograph of the incident instead of rendering assistance, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Katharine Decker.

It remains unclear who specifically threw the rock that led to Bartell’s death. DNA evidence did not implicate any of the defendants, and their statements about the event are conflicting. However, Decker argued that the exact identity of the thrower is immaterial, as all three were complicit in the act and supported one another in it.

Contradictory statements further cloud the case. Kwak asserts that Koenig was the one driving and throwing the rock, while Karol-Chik points the finger at Kwak. Karol-Chik also confessed that he and Koenig had engaged in similar rock-throwing activities on at least ten prior occasions.

Legal representatives for the defendants have requested additional time to contemplate filing motions to separate their clients’ trials, leading to a delay in entering pleas. Prosecutor Decker suggested that multiple trials might be a possibility given the complexity of the case.

The individuals were apprehended several days post-incident at their residences in suburban Denver, aided by mobile phone tower data and another acquaintance who had been with them earlier that day.

This ongoing investigation has been supplemented with reporting from Thomas Peipert, a Denver-based correspondent for Big Big News.

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