Three teenagers charged with killing Colorado woman, 20, by throwing a ROCK ... trends now
Three Colorado teenagers charged with killing a 20-year-old woman by throwing a huge rock through her windshield have pleaded not-guilty to her murder.
Alexa Bartell, 20, was killed when Joseph Koenig, Nicholas 'Mitch' Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak, all 18, allegedly hurled a landscaping rock at her car in Arvada, Colorado, on April 19 2023.
Appearing in Jefferson County District Court on Monday, the teenagers pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder with extreme indifference - Koenig is also facing four new charges of attempted murder and assault for separate rock-throwing incidents.
Prosecutors say the men had thrown giant landscaping rocks and hit six other cars that night, but all the other drivers were uninjured.
Bartell was on the phone with a friend when a rock smashed into her car and she went quiet. Her friend tracked her phone and drove to the location to find her dead in her car, which had plowed off the road into a field.
Alexa Bartell, 20, was killed when when a landscaping rock was thrown through her windshield in Arvada, Colorado, on April 19
A picture reveals the damage caused to Bartell's car during the attack
Joseph Koenig, Nicholas 'Mitch' Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak, all 18, are all charged with murder
The men will be tried separately, with Karol-Chick appearing in court first in June.
Four new charges of two counts of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree assault have also been brought 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 he and Koenig had thrown rocks on ten nights last year but had only caused property damage.
At a previous court appearance, Prosecutor Padraic Emerine said: 'This was an extremely reckless and irresponsible situation that the defendant was involved in that, unfortunately, cost the life of a very innocent and very young woman in this case.'
A sheriff's office arrest affidavit said that after the fatal attack, Kwak told the others: 'We have to go back and see that.' He then allegedly took a
