2 weeks Ago By Sage Kelley The Denver Gazette
Joseph Koening swiveled in his chair Friday morning as his former best friend, Nicholas "Mitch" Karol-Chik, took the stand in his first-degree murder trial to testify against him. Karol-Chik, 20, testified in a trial over the murder of 20-year-old Alexa Bartell on April 19, 2023 as part of Karol-Chik's plea agreement with the First Judicial District Attorney's Office — which lessened his charges from first-degree murder to second-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. The co-defendant sat at the witness stand, dressed in a green jail jumpsuit with dark-rimmed glasses.
His posture was stiff. He told the defense that he was nervous. He called Koenig his best friend and the closest person he had to him at the time.
He said he was like a brother. Koenig fidgeted with his chin. The two avoided eye contact.
Karol-Chik told his story regarding the night in which the trio threw a large landscaping rock from his truck, striking Bartell's windshield and instantly killing her near the 10600 block of Indiana Street near Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge in Jefferson County. The story contradicted Zachary Kwak's, the other co-defendant that testified Thursday afternoon. Kwak made a similar plea with the district attorney's office.
He also avoided trial on murder charges and will spend no more than 32 years in prison on a first-degree assault conviction. Karol-Chik said that the duo had been throwing rocks at cars multiple nights since February 2023, with the prosecution backing up the claim with witnesses testifying about getting hit with rocks on Feb. 25 and April 1 of that year.
Karol-Chik and Koenig, later joined by Kwak on April 19, allegedly struck 10 cars over the three nights, with the last being Bartell's Chevrolet Spark. “We were already in this habit of doing it with parked vehicles. Whenever it would get late at night, we would go to certain spots to pick up these rocks and we would drive pretty much anywhere and throw them at parked vehicles," he told the jury Friday.
Kwak said on Thursday that the only time he threw rocks with the duo was on April 19. Karol-Chik said he had been with them multiple times prior, though only knowing each other for around a month. Over time, the act escalated to throwing rocks at occupied vehicles, though both Karol-Chik and Kwak could not identify how the escalation occurred.
“We would go late at night and we would go on two-lane roads that were very narrow so there was no way someone could turn around and follow us," Karol-Chik said. When Chief Deputy District Attorney Katharine Decker asked Karol-Chik why they did this, he said, "I can't give you a good reason. We just did.
" When asked if there was a good reason to throw rocks at cars, Karol-Chik replied sheepishly, "Never." When the group did hit a vehicle, they would cheer each other on, according to Karol-Chik. On April 19, they picked up rocks at a Walmart and dropped off a fourth friend who asked to go home.
In Kwak's testimony, he claimed that he told them he wanted to go home, as well, but Karol-Chik said, "You'll go home when we want you to go home." Karol-Chik denied Kwak ever asking to leave. The trio began throwing rocks at parked cars, and later moving cars.
Karol-Chik estimated that they threw around 30 rocks that evening, with each of the three throwing around 10 each. Kwak said Thursday that he never threw a rock from the backseat and just watched as a "bystander." When the trio picked up the large landscaping rock, significantly larger than the soft-ball-sized rocks they had been throwing, Karol-Chik allegedly told Kwak it was too big.
According to one of Koenig's defense attorneys, Martin Stuart, Kwak told Karol-Chik that if Karol-Chik wouldn't throw, he would. Karol-Chik agreed, though Kwak previously denied this. The truck, driven by Koenig, eventually turned down Indiana Street.
They saw a pair of headlights driving toward them down a nearby hill. “We said that this was going to be the final one and we were just going to go home after it," Karol-Chik said. That car was driven by Bartell and, in a few moments, she was dead.
According to Karol-Chik, Kwak told Koenig to speed up before throwing the rock. Karol-Chik said Koenig hit around 80 mph. Kwak previously said he hit 103 mph.
Stuart asked Karol-Chik if his truck could even hit 103 mph with a speed limiter installed. Karol-Chik said no. Koenig threw the rock from the window, striking the top driver's side portion of Bartell's car, according to both of the co-defendants.
The rock then hit Bartell and exited out of the back windshield, shattering it. “He was excited,” Karol-Chik said of Koenig after the impact. “He kept turning from his seat to look at me and to look at Zach in the back seat.
He would just look at us with his big smile on his face.” Kwak allegedly said that they had to go back and see the damage. The trio passed by Bartell's car, which was now around 200 feet in a nearby field, with Kwak eventually taking a picture of the car.
They also got out of the truck to pick up pieces of the rock on the shoulder of the road, according to Karol-Chik. "We just wanted to get rid of everything," he said. "We said we were never going to talk about this again and we were never going to do this again.
" The trio all returned home and Karol-Chik went back out in his own truck, driving in a loop around where they had thrown rocks. He said he saw multiple cars pulled over and emergency vehicles in different locations. He eventually passed back by Bartell's car, still seeing it in the middle of the field with no responders.
Bartell would be later found by her girlfriend. Karol-Chik said that while the thought of calling the police crossed his mind, he didn't do it to save himself from getting into trouble. “My headlights showed something glimmering on the road.
I knew it was glass. It was after I passed that point that I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the car was still on the side of the road," he said, choking back tears at the witness stand. Koenig and Karol-Chik met multiple times between April 19 and when they were both arrested around six days later.
According to Karol-Chik, Koenig told him they "won’t have to worry about it" because they'll just say "Zach did it." The suspect did exactly that — something Koenig's defense pointed out multiple times during cross examinations. “Zach was easy to blame because I barely knew him," he said.
During opening statements, Koenig's other attorney, Thomas Ward, alleged that Kwak actually threw the rock that killed Bartell — though it truly doesn't matter to the outcome of the trial, with the prosecution only needing to prove that Koenig was complicit in the death. Karol-Chik told investigators three times that Kwak threw the rock, even claiming that he was unsure how Koenig would have done it. He said Koenig was driving with both hands on the steering wheel at the time of the toss.
During the last proffer meeting with the district attorney's office, Karol-Chik changed his story, saying that he was lying to protect his best friend and Koenig actually threw the rock. Stuart played a clip from Karol-Chik's last interview with district attorney investigators before striking his plea deal, implying that he changed his story about who threw it to get a plea deal. The investigator asked him why they should believe him and what he can add of value to the investigation.
“You have no reason to believe me, but I also have no reason to protect anyone anymore,” Karol-Chik said. “I just want to do what’s best for me, so what I have told you is the truth.” Regardless, the prosecution has to prove whether or not Koenig knew that his actions could have harmed someone that evening — the extreme indifference part of the first-degree murder charge.
“Did you know the possible consequences of throwing a rock at an oncoming driver?” Decker asked Karol-Chik. "Yes. When we were throwing rocks at oncoming vehicles, there was always the possibility that it could go through the windshield and hit someone," he responded.
Saturday marks the two-year anniversary of Bartell's death. Her family has been present every day of the trial, often showing strong emotion. All parties of the court, including First Judicial District Judge Christopher Zenisek, agreed to excuse one of the jurors on Wednesday after the juror became too emotional, the district attorney's office told The Denver Gazette.
The trial resumes Tuesday and is expected to last through the week..
