A mental health evaluation has been ordered for the third and final suspect in last year’s deadly spree of rock-throwing attacks in suburban Denver after the defense claimed his ADHD contributed to the killing and the injury of half a dozen drivers.
Joseph Koenig, 19, was set to begin his jury trial for first-degree murder in Jefferson County district court later this month when his defense requested to introduce additional evidence and expert testimony into the case for an “impaired mental condition” defense, according to court documents.
Koenig’s trial has been delayed until health officials can return a mental health evaluation to the judge determining the 19-year-old’s “mental condition.”
The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office objected, claiming Koenig failed to show “good cause” to justify the late introduction of a mental condition defense, evidence and expert witnesses, “particularly as he was represented by his current counsel for nearly a year prior to the deadline for raising any such defense.”
Absent “good cause,” Colorado law requires that a mental condition notice be raised at the time of arraignment — in this case, April 1 — and that any experts be introduced no later than 35 days before trial.
Koenig’s lawyers filed the request to introduce a “mental condition defense and related experts” nearly three months after the April 1 deadline, according to court documents.
Despite the request being raised only 22 days before trial — with the request filed June 27 for a July 19 trial — First Judicial District Court Judge Christopher Zenisek approved the defense’s motion and ordered Koenig’s evaluation, court records show. The judge said not allowing the evaluation could result in an appeal and retrial.
Specifically, the defense pointed to a doctor’s diagnosis claiming that Koenig has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and said they also wanted to present testimony about adolescent brain development.
“Joe’s test results suggest that he has slow processing speed, exhibits deficits in selective and sustained attention and makes more errors when he processes and responds to information compared to other people his age,” Koenig’s doctor wrote in his report. “He also demonstrated deficits in some domains of memory […and] may make impulsive decisions or errors in processing information.”
Once Koenig is assessed at a facility chosen by the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, Zenisek will decide whether the defense can present that testimony to the jury.
In April, Koenig pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 20-year-old Alexa Bartell as well as multiple counts of attempted first-degree murder and second-degree assault.
Koenig, Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak were charged shortly after the string of attacks, in which rocks narrowly missed the head of one driver and shattered the windshields of others. All three were 18 years old at the time of the attacks.
In the moments before Bartell was killed, she was on her phone talking with a close friend, Jefferson County authorities said. Then the phone went silent.
Zachary Kwak pleaded guilty to first-degree assault, second-degree assault and criminal attempt to commit second-degree assault as part of a May plea deal, dropping charges of first-degree murder from his case.
Kwak is set to be sentenced on Sept. 3 to between 20 and 32 years in the Department of Corrections.
Later in May, Karol-Chik pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder and criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder, as well as a crime of violence sentence-enhancer.
Karol-Chik faces up to 72 years in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 10.
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.
Since testifying is a condition of their plea deals, both 19-year-olds’ sentencing dates could be pushed back depending on the timing of Koenig’s trial.
New court dates won’t be set until after the court receives the results from the mental health evaluation, but the results of the evaluation are set to be reviewed on Aug. 23.
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Originally Published: July 10, 2024 at 3:18 p.m.
