Three Denver area teenagers cheered each other during the night throwing rocks at the car. One of the stones crashed into the windshield to kill the woman, leading to a murder conviction Friday after the trio turned towards each other.
Ju’s judge found Joseph Koenig guilty of first-degree murder after the death of Alexa Bartel on April 19, 2023. Koenig, now 20 years old, has been convicted of attempted murder and other serious crimes against other objects thrown into rocks and vehicles.
A Colorado teenager arrested for Rock Throw Attack took a photo of the murdered woman’s car as a “memorabilia”: police
Bartel’s family and friends hugged and cried in court after the verdict.
Her mother, Kelly Bartel, said that justice was later done, but she had mixed feelings and expressed sympathy for Koenig and two other young men.
“It’s hard to be satisfied or satisfied with justice being served today because I feel that one incredible life has been lost and the other three have been lost and affected,” she said.
The ju judge had to consider a version that competed with the shift in truth provided by Koenig’s former co-defendant in the two-week trial.
Kelly Bartel, mother of Alexa Bartel, who died after a rock hit the windshield of a car, speaks Friday at Jefferson Total Court in Golden, Colorado. (AP Photo/Coleen Thlevin)
No one argued that a 9-pound (4 kilograms) landscaping rock taken from a Walmart parking lot crashed Bartel’s windshield and killed it immediately. The question was who threw it. The only DNA found on the rock was from Bartel, with testimony from two other Zachary Kwak and Nicholas Karol Chik.
Koenig’s lawyer said Kwak threw the rock that killed Bartell. However, Kwak and Karol-Chik said Koenig threw it, saying that a judicial agreement on fewer charges could lead to shorter prison sentences. Karol-Chik said they threw about ten rocks each that night, but Kwak testified that he threw nothing.
Assistant Deputy Attorney General Katherine Decker testified, he threw a lock and shot put style through the window on the side of the driver, left-handed Koenig, and a left-handed driving, telling the ju decree that Bartel’s damage to the car coincides with left-handed Koenig, who was driving. Even if the ju-degree judges were not convinced that Koenig had thrown it, she told them that they should have committed the crime of first-degree murder as a conspirator.
Koenig’s lawyer said he didn’t know no one was injured until Bartell’s car left the road. They also argued that he had a borderline personality disorder, which influenced his impulsive control and judgment.
Defence counsel Martin Stuart asked the ju judge to find out he was found guilty of manslaughter, the most serious charge he faced. The ju judge also had the option of finding him guilty of being a married couple as a co-conspirator.
Testimony said that after seeing Bartel’s car leave the road, three friends turned several times to see it again. Kwak took photos as a memento, but according to their testimony, no one checked the driver or asked for help.
Bartel’s body was not found until she tracked her phone down on the field when her girlfriend, Jenna Griggs, suddenly cut out, she testified.
The three agreed not to tell anyone what had happened, but the latest Kwak for a group of friends later told investigators that Koenig threw a rock. Karol-Chik, who said that Koenig was like a “brother” to him, initially pointed his finger at Kwak and then denounced Koenig by changing his story.
Karol-Chik testified that Koenig was “excited” when he drove in Bartell’s car and made the “Whoop” sound at one point.
“It sounded like he was celebrating,” Karol Chik said.
Koenig’s lawyers tried to question the credibility of other men’s accounts, but emphasized that none of the three were intended to hurt anyone. The defense declined to comment on the conviction.
Kwak first signed a plea agreement and pleaded guilty to the first-degree attack in May 2024. In doing so, he admitted to acting in a way that created a serious risk of death. He also pleaded guilty to a second-degree attack and attempted a second-degree attack on a rock that was thrown early in the night. According to prosecutors, he has faced the prison between 20 and 32 years.
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About a week later, Karolchik pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and violent crime. He also pleaded guilty to attempting first-degree murder for throwing rocks with a total of nine people at the evening and early 2023. Under his agreement, Karol Chik could be sent to prison for between 35 and 72 years when he was sentenced the day before Kwak on Thursday.
Koenig was sentenced June 3rd and faces a mandatory life term for a murder conviction.
