The first of three defendants in the deadly Jefferson County rock-throwing case, Nicholas "Mitch" James Karol-Chik, was sentenced on Thursday.

The first of three defendants in the deadly Jefferson County rock-throwing case was sentenced on Thursday. Nicholas “Mitch” James Karol-Chik pleaded guilty last May in Alexa Bartell’s death in an agreement reached with the prosecution.

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According to the plea agreement, prosecutors said Karol-Chik would serve a minimum of 35 years and up to 72 years in the Department of Corrections. The judge said the deal did not allow for sentencing in the youth offender program. As part of the agreement, Karol-Chik agreed to testify against fellow defendant Joseph Koenig.

On Thursday, the judge sentenced Karol-Chik to 45 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.

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Another defendant in the case, Zachary Kwak, also pleaded guilty in an agreement reached with the prosecution. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday.

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Twenty-year-old Bartell was struck and killed late at night on April 19, 2023, when she was struck by a rock that was thrown into her windshield. Several others were injured in similar incidents with what authorities described as “large landscaping rocks,” concrete, and in one case, a statue.

  • LovstuhagenOPMEnglish
    2·
    16 days ago

    MOre background:

    Karol-Chik and two other men were 18 when they threw rocks at several cars on the night of April 19, 2023. They ultimately killed Bartell when one of the teens threw a 9.3-pound rock through her windshield as she drove on Indiana Street near the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. The rock struck Bartell in the head.

    Denver Post

    More:

    Jurors had to consider shifting and competing versions of the truth offered by Koenig’s former co-defendants during the two-week trial.

    No one disputed that a 9-pound (4-kilogram) landscaping rock taken from a Walmart parking lot crashed through Bartell’s windshield, killing her instantly. The issue was who threw it. The only DNA found on the rock was Bartell’s, making the testimony from the other two, Zachary Kwak and Nicholas Karol-Chik, key to the prosecution.

    Lawyers for Koenig said Kwak threw the rock that killed Bartell. But Kwak and Karol-Chik, whose plea agreements on lesser charges could lead to shorter prison sentences, said Koenig threw it. Although Karol-Chik said they each threw about 10 rocks that night, Kwak testified that he did not throw any.

    Chief Deputy District Attorney Katharine Decker told jurors the damage to Bartell’s car was consistent with Koenig — who is left-handed and was driving — throwing the rock, shotput-style, out the driver’s-side window, as Karol-Chik testified. Even if jurors were unconvinced that Koenig threw it, she told them, they should still find him guilty of first-degree murder as a conspirator.

    Koenig’s attorneys said he did not know anyone had been hurt until Bartell’s car went off the road. They also argued that he had borderline personality disorder, affecting his impulse control and judgment.

    Defense lawyer Martin Stuart asked jurors to instead find Koenig guilty of manslaughter, the least serious charge he faced, saying he did not knowingly try to kill her. Jurors also had the option of finding him guilty of manslaughter as a conspirator.

    After seeing Bartell’s car leave the road, the three friends circled back a few times to look again, according to testimony. Kwak took a photo as a memento, but no one checked on the driver or called for help, according to their testimony.

    Bartell’s body would not be discovered until her girlfriend, Jenna Griggs, who was on a call with her when it abruptly cut out, tracked her phone to the field, she testified.

    AP