On April 19, 2023, a landscaping rock, bigger than a softball, crashed through the windshield of a vehicle, leading to the death of its 20-year-old driver from Jefferson County, Colorado.
The deceased, Alexa Bartell, was conversing with a friend on her phone during the incident. The assault led to the arrest of Joseph Koenig, Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik, and Zachary Kwak, who were all 18-year-old high school seniors at the time.
Deputy Sheriff Daniel Manka took charge of the investigation. On Wednesday, October 18, 2023, he spoke at a live-streamed evidentiary hearing. His testimony detailed that Bartell faced “massive trauma to the head” due to the incident.
Information revealed during the hearing showed that Bartell’s friend used her phone’s tracking feature to locate her after the incident. Bartell was found grievously injured in her car, positioned off the road in a field. Deputy Manka pointed out the presence of blood on the landscaping rock found at the site. Tire tracks around the site suggested that Bartell’s car veered off the road to its resting place in the field. The coroner deduced that the direct cause of Bartell’s death was head trauma, officially ruling it a homicide.
This fatal incident was not unique on that day. Deputy Manka shared that six similar rock-throwing incidents took place on April 19th between about 10 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. The accused individuals reportedly returned to the scene, allegedly to take photographs of Bartell’s damaged vehicle as a grim keepsake.
Subsequent to the incident, the teenagers faced charges of first-degree murder by extreme indifference, along with charges of attempted first-degree murder related to the other reported incidents. The particular charges brought forward in Colorado indicate that the crime exhibited the utmost apathy towards human life.
Evidence presented during Deputy Manka’s testimony shed light on the trio’s vehicle speeding at 80 mph when the fatal rock was hurled. Nevertheless, certain gaps in the prosecution’s presented evidence became apparent. There was ambiguity about which among the three accused teens had thrown the rock and the exact position from which it was thrown inside the car. Bartell’s DNA was the sole DNA found on the rock.
Capitalizing on these gaps, Martin Stuart, Koenig’s defense attorney, raised questions about the integrity of the speed data and the precision of the testimonies.
Lastly, Kwak, a co-defendant, asserted that he was engrossed in a mobile video game when the incident occurred. While Kwak tried to distance himself from the act by claiming Koenig was the driver and Karol-Chik was another passenger, the defense lawyer highlighted the potential unreliability of his testimony.