On Friday, a young and condemned man testified in a Colorado courtroom about his onetime best friend’s alleged enjoyment of violence, painting a bleak picture of human behavior.
Joseph Edwin Koenig, 20, was a high school senior, but 18 years old, when he and two friends were charged with “extreme indifference” murder in the death of Alexa Bartell, 20, on April 19, 2023.
On the day in question, the victim’s Chevy Spark had its windshield smashed by what authorities described as a “large landscaping rock.” The impact caused the young woman’s car to careen “off the roadway” on a remote stretch of road in Jefferson County.
Bartell died in the ensuing crash, and prosecutors previously testified that the victim’s brain was discovered in her back seat.
“There was biological matter on the roadway,” a deputy sheriff who oversaw the murder investigation testified at a hearing in October 2023.
In May 2024, two codefendants in the case, Nicholas “Mitch” James Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak, pleaded guilty to lesser and substantially lesser offenses, respectively. They both agreed to testify against Koenig in his jury trial at Jefferson County District Court.
Each of the defendants, to varying degrees, contributed to the rock-throwing that night. However, Karol-Chik was admittedly more culpable than Kwak, having participated in additional such attacks in February 2023 and even days before in early April 2023.
According to a courtroom report from the Denver Post, Karol-Chik told jurors on Friday that Koenig let out an excited whoop when he saw Bartell’s compact car drive off Indiana Street and through a fence in a field near the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge.
“He was excited,” the witness told the jury about the defendant. “He would just look at us with this big smile on his face.”
On that fateful night, several landscaping rocks were thrown at other vehicles, both moving and parked. However, some of the claimed details are mixed.
Kwak claims he did not throw any of the rocks that night, according to the Post. Instead, Kwak previously testified that he only collected the rocks from multiple parking lots and handed them over to the two front-seat passengers, who threw them.
Kwak previously testified that the teenagers’ vehicle’s speedometer read 103 mph just before the 9.3-pound rock was thrown, which killed Bartell. However, Karol-Chik stated that the car was going 80 mph. Both men said Koenig accelerated before the final, fatal attack.
Karol-Chik went on to say that the celebratory whooping and smiles were consistent with how the trio had generally reacted to the thrown rocks that night; when a rock hit a car, they would rejoice; when it missed a car, they would be disappointed.
“We only thought of them as cars,” the witness explained. “But we never thought of who may be driving them.”
The defendants were initially charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, assault in the second degree, and attempted second-degree assault. Kwak entered a plea agreement on three assault charges: one count of first-degree assault on Bartell and two counts of second-degree assault for attacks on three other victims. Karol-Chik pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder.
Even with plea deals, Karol-Chik and Kwak face decades in prison; they are scheduled to be sentenced on May 1 and 2, respectively.
Koenig, for his part, has acknowledged some responsibility. His lawyers argue that he should only be convicted of manslaughter because none of the rock throwers intended to kill or harm anyone else.
The defense is also relying on Karol-Chik’s inconsistent statements, who told prosecutors for months that Kwak threw the rock that killed Bartell.
Only during the fourth and final proffer interview, which was part of a plea deal, did Karol-Chik finally admit to investigators that Koenig was responsible for the woman’s death.
At the time, he and Koenig were best friends and “almost close enough to be brothers,” Karol-Chik told the jury. The lies came during three of the four proffer interviews because Koenig and Karol-Chik agreed to blame the crime on Kwak, whom they barely knew, during a discussion after seeing emergency vehicles later that evening.
“We went over everything that happened and it was at that time that Joe said to me that we wouldn’t have to worry about it, we’ll just say that Zach did it,” Karol-Chik said during Friday’s trial.
According to the Post, Karol-Chik admitted during cross-examination that he had long believed Kwak had thrown the rock.
The witness testified that he remembered remarking on the sheer size of the rock, telling Kwak it was too large to throw, and being rejected. Karol-Chik went on to say that he remembered Kwak telling him that if he didn’t throw the rock, he would.
The state then worked to improve the situation.
“Was it true that Joseph Koenig threw the rock that killed Alexa Bartell?” a prosecutor asked during redirect.
Karol-Chik replied affirmatively.
This week, jurors will decide who and what to believe. Closing arguments are scheduled to conclude on April 21.
