Global Courant 2023-04-27 03:48:57
Three high school students were reportedly arrested swinging a landscape rock in a Colorado woman who killed her while driving just outside of Denver, authorities said Wednesday.
Alexa Bartell, 20, “was killed when a rock was thrown through her windshield while she was” driving north in the 10600 block of Indiana Street around 10:45 p.m. in Westminster on April 19, according to a statement from Jefferson County Sheriff Outice iresearcherS.
Bartell was the last of several cars “struck by large landscape rocks in an attack that began shortly after” 10 p.m. that evening near 100th Avenue and Simms Street, officials said.
Public tips and cell phone records played a key role in finding the suspects and making the arrests, sheriff’s spokesman Jacki Kelley told reporters.
“This case has deeply affected a lot of people,” Kelley said. “This was a beautiful young woman with her whole life ahead of her, who was just driving home, and her life was ended as a result of these actions. It was shocking to a community and people wanted to know who was involved.”
Alexa Bartell. (Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office)
Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik, Joseph Koenig and Zachary Kwak, all 18, were taken into custody at their homes in Arvada, according to the sheriff’s statement.
All three are 12th graders at Jefferson County Public Schools, Kelley said. One attends Ralston Valley High School, another Standley Lake High School and a third attends an online program, the spokesperson said.
A representative from the school district was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.
Two suspects were arrested at 10:59 p.m. Tuesday and a third at 2 a.m. Wednesday, Kelley told reporters. They all lived with their parents.
Sheriff’s detectives called Bartell’s family in the middle of the night to notify them of the arrests.
“They’re just thankful,” Kelley said. “They are still suffering the greatest possible loss.”
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The rock killed Bartell and not a subsequent crash, which occurred about 20 miles northwest of Denver and 10 miles southeast of Boulder, officials said.
“The rock came through Alexa Bartell’s windshield, hit her and killed her,” Kelley told NBC News Wednesday. “The rocks we’ve described in this crime series are all about 4 to 6 inches tall and about 3 to 5 pounds each. They’re great boulders for landscaping.”
The suspects were traveling in a black 2016 Chevy Silverado, though it wasn’t immediately clear who was driving or who threw the rock that killed Bartell, officials said.
“We believe the vehicle was traveling in the opposite direction as our victims,” Kelley said.
The three suspects were arrested on suspicion of premeditated murder through extreme indifferencesaid the sheriff.
While first-degree murder is typically associated with an intended victim and motive, Colorado’s extreme indifference statute is for defendants who wanted to kill someone — but just not a targeted individual, said University of Colorado clinical law professor Ann England.
“If you pull out an AK-47 and fire at a crowd of people, there’s no question that you intended to kill,” England said.
“Throwing a rock (and accusing first-degree murder) is going to be tough. I mean, is throwing a rock a known risk (to potentially kill someone)? Throwing a rock at a moving car, now that someone has died, seems obvious, right? But for that? I’m not entirely sure.”
It was not immediately clear whether the three men had hired or assigned criminal defense attorneys to speak on their behalf.
Phone calls to publicly listed phone numbers for Colorado relatives of Koenig, Kwak and Karol-Chik went unanswered Wednesday.
The three teenagers would appear in court for the first time on Thursday morning.
Kelley said she can recall individual instances of rocks or bricks being thrown off bridges in Colorado over the years, but never a series of such reckless acts.
“These suspects went from place to place to place throwing large stones through the windshields of moving vehicles. We have not seen it before.”
This article was originally published on NBC News. com
