A 20-year-old driver from Jefferson County, Colorado was killed when a “landscaping rock,” larger than a softball, smashed through her windshield on April 19.
Alexa Bartell, the victim, was on the phone with a friend when the incident occurred.
Joseph Koenig, Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik, and Zachary Kwak, all 18-year-old high school seniors at the time of their arrests, are facing charges related to the event.
Deputy Sheriff Daniel Manka, leading the investigation, testified in a live-streamed evidentiary hearing on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, noting that Bartell suffered “massive trauma to the head.”
The court learned that Bartell’s friend, with whom she was speaking at the time, traced her location using her phone’s tracking capability, only to discover Bartell fatally injured inside her vehicle, off the road in a field.
Deputy Manka indicated that blood was found on the landscaping rock at the scene. Tire tracks suggested that Bartell’s car came off the road where it stopped in the field. The coroner’s findings confirmed the cause of death to be head trauma, ruling the manner of death a homicide.
It appears the event wasn’t an isolated incident. Manka disclosed that six other rock-throwing incidents occurred on April 19th between about 10 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. The suspects, it is alleged, returned to the scene to photograph Bartell’s car as a chilling “memento.”
Days after the incident, the three teens were charged with first-degree murder by extreme indifference and attempted first-degree murder related to the other incidents. In Colorado, this specific charge implies the crime was committed with universal malice, revealing extreme indifference to human life.
Deputy Manka’s testimony further revealed that the suspects were driving at 80 mph when the fatal rock was thrown. However, critical gaps emerged in the prosecution’s evidence during the hearing. While the only DNA found on the rock was Bartell’s, the physical evidence couldn’t determine which of the three suspects threw the rock, nor could it establish where exactly it was thrown from within the vehicle.
The defense lawyer for Koenig, Martin Stuart, took this opportunity to challenge the state’s case, questioning the speed data and the accuracy of the testimonies.
Kwak, one of the co-defendants, claimed he was preoccupied with playing a video game on his phone at the crucial moment. Although Kwak tried to “save his ass,” in his own words, and identified Koenig as the driver and Karol-Chik as the passenger, the defense lawyer cast doubt on his credibility.
