Man convicted of murder for rock-throwing death of Colorado driver

A man has been convicted of first-degree murder after he and his friends were accused of killing a driver during a night of throwing rocks at cars in Colorado. 

What happened in the rock-throwing case?

Dig deeper:

Joseph Koenig was guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Alexa Bartell on April 19, 2023, after the other young men riding with him reached deals with prosecutors and testified against him.

The AP reported that Koenig, now 20, was also convicted of attempted murder and other less serious crimes for rocks and other objects thrown at vehicles the night Bartell was killed and in previous weeks.

Koenig is scheduled for sentencing on June 3 and faces a mandatory life term for the murder conviction.

The backstory:

In 2023, Bartell, a 20-year-old Colorado woman, died after she was hit by a 9-pound landscaping rock taken from a Walmart parking lot that crashed through Bartell’s windshield, killing her instantly.

Bartell was on the phone with a friend while driving when she was struck by the rock, the Associated Press reported. After the call went silent, the friend tracked Bartell’s location with a phone app and found Bartell dead in her car, which crashed into a field. Investigators told the AP that Bartell was killed by the rock and not the car crash. 

Were others involved in the rock-throwing incident?

Local perspective:

During the two-week trial, jurors had to consider different versions of the truth offered by Joseph Koenig's former co-defendants Zachary Kwak and Nicholas Karol-Chik.

Kwak entered a plea deal first, pleading guilty in May 2024 to first-degree assault, and he also pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and attempted second-degree assault for rocks that were thrown earlier in the night. Kwak is facing between 20 and 32 years in prison, prosecutors told the Associated Press. 

Karol-Chik pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and committing a crime of violence. The AP reported that he also pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder for throwing rocks at a total of nine people that night and earlier in 2023. Karol-Chik might be sentenced to between 35 and 72 years when he is sentenced.

According to the Associated Press, the issue in the trial was determining who threw the rock, with the only DNA located on the object belonging to Alexa Bartell’s, making the testimony from the other two, Zachary Kwak and Nicholas Karol-Chik, pivotal to the prosecution.

Attorneys for Koenig said Kwak threw the rock that killed Bartell. But Kwak and Karol-Chik said Koenig threw it. Although Karol-Chik said they each threw about 10 rocks that night, Kwak testified that he did not throw rocks.