Nearly three weeks before three men allegedly hurled rocks at moving vehicles west of Denver — killing a 20-year-old woman and injuring others — authorities say two of them were involved in another attack involving a statue head being thrown at a moving car.
Joseph Koenig and Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik, both 18, are facing two new counts of attempted first-degree murder and attempted second-degree assault in a previously unreported incident April 1 in Arvada, Brionna Boatright, a spokeswoman for First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King said Wednesday.
Evidence related to the new charges is expected to be presented Oct. 18 during a preliminary hearing for the three men, after a hearing scheduled for Sept. 8 was postponed. Additional details were not immediately available. The charges were filed Aug. 30, Boatright said.
The two men, along with Zachary Kwak, 18, already face murder charges in the April 19 death of Alexa Bartell, after police accused them of launching a rock from a pickup at Bartell’s yellow Chevy Spark as she was talking on the phone with a friend. The rock smashed through her front windshield and struck her in her head.
Police said Bartell’s car was the last car hit as the group hurled large landscaping rocks at a string of vehicles shortly after 10 p.m. on April 19 in Westminster. The men were also previously charged for hitting six other cars and injuring two other drivers in a rock-throwing spree.
Attorneys for Koenig and Karol-Chik did not immediately return requests for comment Wednesday.
All three men remain in jail after a judge set a $2 million cash-only bond in June. Each faces 13 charges in the April 19 rock-throwing spree, including one court of first-degree murder with extreme indifference, six counts of attempted first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree assault and three counts of attempted second-degree assault, court documents show. The extreme indifference charges allege the men knowingly created “a grave risk of death,” without caring who was injured or killed, resulting in Bartell’s death.
After their arrests, the men told investigators that they returned to the crash site to take a photo of the car to serve as a memento, according to arrest affidavits.
In interviews with police, two men accused each other of throwing the rock that killed Bartell. Karol-Chik said Kwak threw the rock while Bartell was driving on Indiana Street at about 10:45 p.m. Kwak said Koenig threw it. Koenig has refused to be interviewed by police.
UPDATED: This story was updated at 1:45 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8 with a new preliminary hearing date after a judge postponed Friday’s hearing.