Colorado – Three high school students are facing first-degree murder charges after a woman died due to a large rock being hurled through her windshield, according to the district attorney on Wednesday.
20-year-old Alexa Bartell lost her life when the sizable landscaping stone hit her car as she drove along a Westminster street, a Denver suburb, around 10:45 p.m. on April 19.
Previously arrested, Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik, Joseph Koenig, and Zachary Kwak, all 18 years old, have now been charged.
Each of them faces first-degree murder charges involving extreme indifference, along with 12 other counts, as announced by First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King in a statement on Wednesday.
The three are accused of throwing rocks at other cars that same night.
The district attorney’s office reported that within a 45-minute period, three more individuals were injured and a total of seven vehicles were struck by rocks. Bartell’s car was the last one hit that evening, as stated by the authorities.
The charged individuals are 12th-grade students in the Jefferson County Public Schools, according to a spokesperson for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office who spoke during their arrest last week.
The sheriff’s office alleges that the trio was in another car while they threw rocks at the other vehicles.
Besides the murder charge, each of them is charged with seven counts of attempted murder, three counts of second-degree assault, and three counts of second-degree attempted assault, as per the district attorney’s office.
One of the victims, whose car was hit by a rock, recounted seeing another vehicle’s headlights in the darkness before hearing “what sounded like a shotgun blast” when his window was shattered.
As of Wednesday night, it was unclear from the available online court information whether the accused had attorneys who could represent them. Detailed case records do not seem to be accessible remotely in Colorado.
Source:
https://news.yahoo.com/three-charged-murder-colorado-rock-064213316.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/three-charged-murder-colorado-rock-throwing-death-rcna82798
