Alexa Bartell, Zachary Kwak, Joseph Koenig, Nicholas Karol-Chik (Images via Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office)
A Colorado law enforcement officer who led the investigation into the alleged murder of 20-year-old driver testified at a Wednesday evidentiary hearing that the large “landscaping rock” which smashed through Alexa Bartell’s windshield caused “massive trauma to the head” as she talked on the phone with a friend. Under questioning, however, the deputy sheriff was not able to confirm which of the three teen suspects actually threw the rock.
Joseph Koenig, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and a white undershirt, appeared behind the defendant’s table in Judge Christopher Zenisek’s courtroom for a live-streamed hearing that began just after 8:30 a.m. local time in Jefferson County.
Deputy Sheriff Daniel Manka with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office was the chief witness called to the stand by the state. Manka first identified Koenig, Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik, and Zachary Kwak, in the courtroom by what they were wearing and where they were seated.
All three suspects were 18 at the time of their arrests and were high school seniors.
The deputy sheriff then described the moment authorities found Arvada resident Alexa Bartell dead in her Chevy Spark “off the roadway” in a field on April 19: “She had sustained significant injuries to her head and she appeared to be deceased.”
At the start of the case, the sheriff’s office revealed that the friend Bartell was talking with “tracked her phone and drove to the location on Indiana St., finding her friend “fatally wounded inside her car.”
Manka testified that there was blood on the landscaping rock that authorities found at the scene.
“There was biological matter on the roadway,” he said, and tire tracks were visible heading off of the road, where Bartell’s car came to a stop in the field.
An autopsy and coroner’s report determined Bartell’s cause of death to be “massive trauma to the head” and the manner of death homicide, Manka testified.
The deputy sheriff said that the evidence showed the defendants did not just attack Bartell but carried out a rock-throwing spree. There were six other rock-throwing incidents “specifically on April 19th” from approximately 10 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. against other victims in the roads surrounding the area deputies were investigating Bartell’s death, the investigator said.
The “landscaping rocks” that were allegedly the suspects’ weapons of choice were previously described as larger than a softball.
It was further alleged that after the murder the teen suspects turned their pickup truck around and took a photo of Alexa Bartell’s car as a “memento.”
Days after Bartell’s death, Koenig, Karol-Chik, and Kwak were charged with first-degree murder by extreme indifference. They were also accused of attempted first-degree murder in connection with the other alleged incidents.
In Colorado, first-degree murder by extreme indifference is committed when there are “circumstances evidencing an attitude of universal malice manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life generally,” and a defendant “engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to a person, or persons, other than himself, and thereby causes the death of another.”
Before a break in the proceedings, Manka testified the teen suspects were driving at 80 mph before one of them threw the landscaping rock that killed Bartell.
Developing: deputy says the truck three teens were driving when they threw a large landscaping rock at #AlexaBartell’s car was headed toward her at 80 miles per hour. Preliminary hearing in a break. Emotional and packed courtroom with Bartell’s family, friends taking up one side
— Carol McKinley (@CarolAMcKinley) October 18, 2023
After the break, an attorney for Koenig, who appeared to be Martin Stuart, attempted to poke holes in the state’s theory of the case during cross-examination.
He first grilled Manka about the speed data in the case, which law enforcement largely obtained from victim statements to support their investigation. The defense attorney then asked whether authorities were able to figure out where precisely the rock was thrown from the black 2016 Chevy Silverado, the suspect vehicle belonging to defendant Nicholas Karol-Chik.
Manka said investigators were neither unable to determine which of the teens threw the rock nor where in the pickup truck the rock was thrown. He also confirmed that the only DNA found on that rock belonged to Alexa Bartell.
The deputy sheriff later testified that investigators do not know which suspect threw the rocks at issue in any of the alleged incidents.
The defense lawyer for Koenig stated that his client’s co-defendants “lied” for an hour when they were interrogated about Bartell’s death. By way of example, Koeing’s attorney said that Zachary Kwak claimed he didn’t even see what was going on at the fateful moment the rock was thrown because he was playing a video game on his phone in the back seat.
Manka acknowledged that he investigated Kwak’s video game story and wasn’t able to verify it.
The defense lawyer attempted to undermine Kwak’s credibility further by highlighting a particular statement he allegedly made to law enforcement: “At this point, I’m trying to save my ass.”
It was a significant line of questioning because Kwak allegedly identified Koenig as the driver of the pickup truck and the rock-thrower, and Karol-Chik as the front-seat passenger.
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