GOLDEN, Colo. – A second teenager pleaded guilty Wednesday in connection with the death of a 20-year-old driver last year who was hit in the head by a rock that shattered her windshield in suburban Denver.
In a plea agreement with prosecutors, 19-year-old Nicholas Karol-Chik pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated assault, saying he passed the rock to another teenager, Joseph Koenig, who then threw it at Alexa Bartell’s car. killing her on April 19, 2023. Karol-Chik also pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder for throwing rocks at a total of nine people that night along with Koenig and Zachary Kwak, who pleaded guilty last week and earlier this year.
Prosecutors previously said they did not know which of the three 19-year-olds threw the rock that killed Bartell, noting that the only DNA found on it was hers. So they may have to rely on Karol-Chik’s testimony when Koenig, the only defendant still facing first-degree murder charges in connection with Bartell’s death, goes on trial in July.
Koenig pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Martin Stuart, declined to comment.
Both Karol-Chik and Kwak agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of the plea agreement. Kwak pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in connection with Bartell’s death, second-degree assault in connection with three other drivers who suffered rock injuries on the night of her death, and attempted second-degree assault in connection with three other cars that were struck by rocks, but it did not help. not result in injury.
According to the facts that Karol-Chik admitted, the three of them threw stones at oncoming cars that evening, hitting a total of seven vehicles. Karol-Chik also said he was sitting in the front passenger seat when he handed Koenig a large decorative rock, which Koenig, who was driving, threw at Bartell’s car.
Under the plea agreement, Karol-Chik could face 35 to 72 years in prison when he is sentenced on September 10.
Karol-Chik, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and his wrists cuffed in front of him, entered his plea in court as his parents watched several rows behind him.
He politely answered Judge Christopher Zenisk’s questions about whether he understood what he was doing while his mother, sitting on the defense side of the courtroom, cried. Bartell’s family and friends filled the other side of the courtroom, with some of them also wiping away tears during the hearing.