A teen faces up to 72 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder Wednesday for his role in last year’s spree of rock-throwing attacks on drivers in suburban Denver that killed 20-year-old Alexa Bartell.
Nicholas Karol-Chik, 19, pleaded guilty in First Judicial District Court in Golden to charges of second-degree murder and criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder, as well as a crime of violence sentence-enhancer.
As part of the plea deal with prosecutors, Karol-Chik’s attorneys acknowledged their client handed the large landscaping rock that killed Bartell to his friend Joseph Koenig, who threw it through her windshield as they sped past her on Indiana Street in unincorporated Jefferson County.
Karol-Chik’s plea comes just days after the third person in the car that night — Zachary Kwak, 19 — pleaded guilty to assault charges tied to the April 2023 attacks on seven drivers, including Bartell.
Koenig, also 19, is scheduled to stand trial in July on first-degree murder charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
Kwak and Karol-Chik’s plea deals “are contingent on their full cooperation in the prosecution of the co-defendants, which could include testifying” against Koenig, said Brionna Boatright, spokesperson for the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
As part of Karol-Chik’s plea agreement Wednesday, prosecutors dismissed the original 15 charges, including multiple counts of first-degree murder and assault.
Prosecutors and the defense agreed that Karol-Chik will be sentenced to the Colorado Department of Corrections for a term between 35 and 48 years for the second-degree murder conviction. The general sentencing range for second-degree murder is 16 to 48 years.
He also faces an additional eight to 24 years in prison for the charge of criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder.
In total, the teen could face up to 72 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 10. He will not be sentenced to the Youthful Offender System — a medium-security prison in Pueblo that houses male and female offenders between ages the ages of 14 and 19 — First Judicial District Judge Christopher Zenisek said during Wednesday’s hearing.
Karol-Chik, dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit and his wrists handcuffed in front of him, entered his plea in court as his parents watched a few rows behind him.
He politely answered Zenisek’s questions about whether he understood what he was doing as his mother, sitting on the defense side of the courtroom, cried. Bartell’s family and friends filled the other side of the courtroom, some of them also wiping away tears during the hearing.
Bartell was killed around 10:45 p.m. on April 19, 2023, after a rock crashed through her windshield as she drove northbound on Indiana Street, talking to a close friend on her phone.
Three then-18-year-olds — Karol-Chik, Kwak and Koenig — were arrested and accused of throwing landscaping rocks at seven vehicles in Jefferson and Boulder counties that evening, including the one that killed Bartell.
Karol-Chik, Kwak and Koenig each threw rocks from Karol-Chik’s moving Chevrolet Silverado, targeting drivers of oncoming moving vehicles, Karol-Chik’s attorneys said during Wednesday’s hearing. All seven vehicles were damaged and three drivers, not including Bartell, were injured, prosecutors said.
During the hearing, the defense said Karol-Chik sat in the car’s front passenger seat and handed Koenig — who was driving — the rock that Koenig threw at Bartell. Karol-Chik also threw a rock on his own at another vehicle.
Karol-Chik “knowingly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death” and showed “extreme indifference to the value of human life,” the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Kwak pleaded guilty to first-degree assault, second-degree assault and criminal attempt to commit second-degree assault during his own disposition hearing Friday. He faces 20 to 32 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 3.
Koenig’s next hearing is scheduled for July 3 and his jury trial is set to begin July 19, according to Jefferson County District Court records.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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