A second teen accused of throwing landscaping rocks at a string of cars, killing a 20-year-old woman and injuring several others, pleaded guilty to murder charges Wednesday.
Nicholas Karol-Chik, 19, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Alexa Bartell, and criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder in attacks that targeted nine other victims, according to the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office. He also pleaded guilty to a sentence enhancer of criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder.
Under a plea deal, 15 other charges were dropped, the office said. Karol-Chik faces a minimum sentence of 35 years and a maximum of 72 years in prison.
His sentencing date is scheduled for Sept. 10.
Karol-Chik, Zachary Kwak and Joseph Koenig — who were all 18 at the time — were arrested and accused of hurling large rocks April 19 at seven cars, including the one that killed Bartell as she drove on Indiana Street in Jefferson County.
When investigators found Bartell’s car, there was a large hole in the front windshield on the driver’s side and the rear window was completely broken out. Bartell appeared to have a wound to her head and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to an arrest affidavit.
The three men were traveling at 80 mph when a 4-to-6 inch landscaping rock struck Bartell’s car, a detective with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office testified in a previous hearing. After the attack, all three men returned to her car stranded hundred of feet off the road in a field to take a photo as a memento. None called police before returning to their suburban Denver homes, he said.
Seven cars were damaged and three drivers, not including Bartell, were injured. Some rocks narrowly missed the head of one driver and flung shattered glass into the eyes of others, according to previous court testimony.
In accepting the plea, Karol-Chik’s attorneys said he was in the front passenger seat when he gave Koenig, who was driving, the large landscaping rock that Koenig threw at Bartell, killing her. Karol-Chik also threw a rock and concrete on his own at another driver.
Karol-Chik “knowingly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death, under circumstances evidencing an attitude of universal malice manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life,” the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Wednesday.
Kwak, 19, pleaded guilty May 10 to first-degree assault, second-degree assault and criminal attempt to commit second-degree assault, according to online court records.
Koenig is expected in court July 3 and his jury trial is scheduled to begin July 19, records show.