Global Courant 2023-05-04 09:42:13
Three Colorado high school students have been charged with first-degree murder in a case in which a woman died after a large rock was thrown through her windshield, the prosecutor said Wednesday.
Alexa Bartell, 20, died after the landscape rock hit her vehicle as she was driving down a street in Westminster, a Denver-area city, at around 10:45 p.m. on April 19.
Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik, Joseph Koenig and Zachary Kwak, all 18, had previously been arrested.
Alexa Bartell.The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office
They have each been charged with first-degree murder with extreme indifference and 12 other counts, said first-degree prosecutor Alexis King in statement on Wednesday.
The trio allegedly threw stones at other vehicles that night.
Three other people were injured after rocks were thrown at vehicles within 45 minutes, the prosecutor’s office said. A total of seven vehicles were hit, the statement said.
According to authorities, Bartell’s vehicle was the last to be hit that night.
The three people charged now are 12th grade students at Jefferson County Public Schools, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said when they were arrested last week.
The three were believed to have been in another vehicle when the rocks were thrown at other vehicles, the sheriff’s office said.
In addition to the murder charge, they each face seven counts of attempted murder, three counts of second-degree assault and three counts of second-degree attempted assault, according to the district attorney’s office.
One of the people whose vehicle was hit by a rock has described seeing the headlights of another car in the dark and then hearing “what sounded like a gunshot” when his window was shattered.
It was not clear from court information available online Wednesday night whether the three had attorneys who could speak on their behalf. Detailed records don’t seem to be available remotely in Colorado.
