As the trial deadline looms for three suspects accused of killing an Arvada woman in a rock-throwing spree, it’s starting to look like two against one.

Alexa Bartell’s tragic death shocked the Front Range last April. 

In an evidentiary hearing Tuesday, 1st Judicial Judge Christopher Zenisek found there was enough probable cause to send Joseph Koenig, 19, to trial on four additional counts for a separate rock-throwing incident involving two vehicles Feb. 25, 2023 — nearly two months before Bartell was killed.

Koenig now faces 19 charges including the first degree murder count for Bartell’s murder.

Koenig’s four new charges include two each of attempted murder and second-degree assault in connection with the two additional vehicles which were hit, one with a large rock and the other with a chunk of concrete, according to First Judicial Deputy District Attorney Katharine Decker.

The information was based solely on a proffer interview called by Koenig’s co-defendant, Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik. A proffer interview is an attempt to work with the government in a criminal case, often in exchange for a plea deal or lesser sentence. 

On January 4, Karol-Chik — who faces 15 charges — called detectives to turn on Koenig for allegedly throwing the rock which killed Bartell, according to court testimony. This was a change of heart, as two times previously, Karol-Chik told investigators that it was the third co-defendant, Zachary Kwak, who threw the fatal rock.

Karol-Chik took two polygraphs, one pointing to Kwak as the culprit and another accusing Koenig — but both polygraphs were inconclusive according to lead detective Dan Manka.

Koenig’s attorney, Martin Stuart, argued that Karol-Chik’s information was too unreliable for the extra charges to stick.

“The only evidence comes from Karol-Chik, who has lied repeatedly to law enforcement about who was throwing a rock and when,” Stuart said.

Koenig’s parents quickly left the courtroom when the hearing resulting in their son’s additional charges was over.  Bartell’s family and friends, who fill up one side of the courtroom, have not missed a court date. 

Prosecutors said in court Tuesday that Karol-Chik did not get a deal in exchange for the Jan. 4 proffer interview. Though Karol-Chik was also involved in the two Feb. 25, 2023 incidents, it was unclear why he has not been charged for his participation in them.

Denver defense attorney and former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman was not surprised by the turn of events in that “the first one (of the three) to turn and tell corroborated truth may receive the best plea deal.”

So far, no known plea deal has been offered although Kwak, who faces 13 charges including first-degree murder, has a disposition hearing Friday — which could signal such a development. 

Additional incident details 

The victims from the added Feb. 25 incidents survived. They were Michael Marasco, his son, his daughter and her boyfriend, who were in one vehicle and Shannon and Kurt Seela, who were in the second, according to court documents obtained by The Denver Gazette.

The February incident brought the total number of vehicles prosecutors believe were hit by flying objects over three different incidents to 10. 

In all, the rock-throwing tally according to prosecutors:

1. February 25, 2023, Jefferson County — Two vehicles, no injuries, vehicle damage. Weapons were a large rock and a chunk of concrete.
2. April 1, 2023, Arvada — One vehicle, no injuries, damage to family van. Weapon was a concrete statue head.
3. April 19, 2023, — Seven vehicles, including Bartell’s, one death, several injuries, vehicle damage. Weapons were large landscaping rocks.

Clear as mud

Despite the legal chess match and varying circumstances, the complex case boils down to the fact that all three 19-year-old suspects face a first degree murder charge for the death of Bartell, who was just trying to get home home the night of April 19, 2023 when a landscape rock slammed through her windshield at around 10:40 p.m. and hit her in the head causing her to lose control of her Chevy Spark and roll down an embankment.

She was on a cellphone call with a friend when she suddenly stopped talking. The friend traced the phone signal to a remote pasture: a lonely stretch of Indiana Street just south of Highway 128. Bartell’s friend raced to help Bartell, but she was cold to the touch, according to the arrest affidavit.

Close quarters

Aside from Koenig’s preliminary hearing, Tuesday morning, Karol-Chik, Kwak and Koenig were in court together for a joint motions hearing, likely in the same courtroom for the last time. They will be tried separately.

From the beginning, they have not appeared to exchange glances even though they sit within feet of one another. 

But Tuesday before court, Koenig — who sits a table away from Karol-Chik — made a point to look at him, and then followed Kwak as he made his way into the courtroom toward the jury box where he sits with his attorneys.

Neither Karol-Chik nor Kwak appeared to return Koenig’s gaze.

All three men are 19-years-old. They wear different colored jail outfits to ensure that they are separated while they are in the Jefferson County jail. They all appear in court with their hands cuffed in front of them, the cuffs attached to a chain which circles around their backs. They wear plastic, orange, jail-issued clogs. 

During Tuesday morning’s joint hearing, Judge Kenisek threw out a statement which Karol-Chik made April 26, 2023 when he was arrested. During a four-hour videotaped confession, Karol-Chik said that in the months leading up to the night Bartell was killed, he and Koenig threw rocks and other objects at moving vehicles in 10 separate incidents. Zenisek called his decision to throw out the statement “a close call” but granted Koenig’s motion because mention of the prior acts could “heighten the jury’s fear of safety in the community” and distract them from the facts of the case.

If Kwak does not reach a plea deal this week, his trial is scheduled to begin June 24th and will stagger to fit the July 4 holiday. Karol-Chik will be the first to stand trial starting with jury selection on June 7. Koenig will be the final of the three to be tried. His trial is scheduled to begin July 19, a Friday, and end around August 1.