Two more victims emerge in deadly rock-throwing case

Two more victims have surfaced in connection with a deadly night of rock-throwing that ended up in the brutal death of a 20-year-old Arvada woman last year, a Monday court hearing revealed.

Joseph Koenig, one of three rock-throwing suspects, has been charged with four additional counts — two each of attempted murder and second-degree assault in connection with two additional rock-throwing incidents that prosecutors said happened on Feb. 25, 2023.

Not much is known about these two, previously unreported incidents, except that of the three rock-throwing suspects charged in Bartell's death, only Koenig, 19, has been charged for the Feb. 25 cases. Prosecutors charged Koenig with the new counts on March 11, 2023, but the motion did not come to light until it was mentioned in a court hearing Monday morning. 

The additional victims, who survived, were Michael Marasco and Shannon Seela, according to court documents obtained by The Denver Gazette, bringing the total number of vehicles prosecutors believe were hit by flying objects to ten. 

A Jefferson County court spokesperson said that both Marasco and Seela were hit in separate incidents in Arvada. 

Attempts to contact Marasco and Seela were not successful by press time. There are no other known victims but Chief Deputy District Attorney Katharine Decker hinted that there were as many as 10 other throwing incidents in the two and half months from February 2023 to April 19th, whether it be "a statue or motorcycle helmet." 

Defense attorneys argued that some of those incidents may have involved throwing objects, such as Coke bottles at parked cars. 

The three suspects entered "not-guilty" pleas to all charges Monday. 

Zachary Kwak, in a yellow jail outfit, Nicholas "Mitch" Karol-Chik in a green jail outfit, and Koenig in orange, do not appear to look at one another, though they sat within feet of each other. Each has two private attorneys and their parents sat quietly behind them in court. 

Kwak looked back and smiled at his parents during the hearing. 

Bartell’s family and friends have not missed a court hearing. Often, sensitive discussions draw tears among them. 

Bartell's death

Alexa Bartell was killed when a landscaping rock was thrown through her car window April 19, 2024. Six other victims, whose vehicles were also hit that night, survived. 

Koenig was arrested on charges connected to Bartell's murder on April 24 after a metro-area-wide manhunt.

On Monday morning, attorneys argued that officers commanded for Koenig to come outside that night and, thus, did not have a warrant to arrest him. Prosecutors countered that there was no physical force until Koenig was arrested on the "curtilage" of his house that night, meaning he came outside of the door before he was handcuffed.

"It wasn't until he came out of his home ... that he was seized," said Decker. "He wasn't touched, he wasn't subjected to any physical force."

Defense attorney Tom Ward also moved to suppress evidence from Koenig's cellphone claiming that Jefferson County sheriff deputies did not have a warrant for Koenig's phone when he gave it to them that night. 

Attorneys for the three suspects are also challenging the cellphone "tower dump," which was ordered the morning after the murder when the suspects were still at large, and the reliability of contradictory statements Karol-Chik and Kwak made during their interviews. 

First Judicial District Judge Christopher Zenisek said that he will rule on the motions at the next hearing on May 7. 

Karol-Chik, 19, and Kwak, also 19, each face 13 counts of murder and attempted murder for the April 19, 2023 rock-throwing incident. 

Karol-Chik and Koenig face more charges for other incidents, which Karol-Chik told police started in February 2023. One of those events happened exactly one year ago and involved a concrete statue head. 

The case of the statue head 

In a case that gets more disturbing with each added victim, Karol-Chik and Koenig face additional charges for an incident that happened on April 1 in Arvada. 

The two teens are alleged to have thrown a Greek statue head at a family van driving in Arvada, resulting in damage to the vehicle but no injuries. 

Karol-Chik, who owned the truck that allegedly transported the suspects the night Bartell was killed, told investigators that he and Koenig had started throwing rocks and statues and people in February. Kwak appeared to have only just met Karol-Chik and Koenig, according to testimony during the preliminary hearing. 

Karol-Chik was interviewed on April 25, 2023, when he was first arrested and then again this past January, according to Koenig's attorney, Stuart, who read part of Karol-Chik's interview in court.

Stuart claimed that Karol-Chik lied in at least one of those interviews because he gave "different stories about how many rocks he threw that night."

The trials of Karol-Chik and Kwak are expected to take at least nine days each. All defendants are being tried separately.

At an earlier hearing, prosecutor Katherine Decker told Judge Zenisek that of the three suspects, Koenig’s trial may be the longest by one day.

Karol-Chik will be the first to stand trial starting with jury selection scheduled to start on June 7. Kwak’s trial is scheduled to begin on June 24 and will stagger to fit the July 4 holiday. Koenig will be the final of the three to be tried. His trial is scheduled to begin on July 19 and end around August 1.

Karol-Chik and Kwak gave interviews to law enforcement the night they were arrested. Koenig is the only one who refused to go on record with the police.

One of the unknown details in the case is which one of the then-18-year-olds did what, and was there one ringleader who led the other two during a night of mischief that turned deadly. 

In his four-hour video-taped interview, Karol-Chik said that it was Kwak who threw the rock that smashed Bartell's windshield and struck her in the head, killing her, the arrest documents alleged. 

On the other hand, Kwak told investigators it was Koenig who threw the fatal rock, according to the affidavit. 

On the early evening of April 19, the three teens loaded up the back seat of Koenig's pickup truck with landscaping material and allegedly went on a deadly rock hurtling spree — at times pretending they were Marines hitting targets in a combat zone, according to a Jefferson County Sheriff Office's arrest affidavit. 

Bartell, 20, died almost instantly when a large, rounded landscaping rock slammed into her windshield at around 10:45 p.m. on a lonely stretch of Indiana Street just south of Highway 128, Jefferson County Sheriffs said. The rock hit her in the head and exited out the back window before it came to rest a good distance from her car, according to arrest documents.

Former Denver prosecutor-now defense attorney Craig Silverman said that no matter which of the three threw the rock which hit Bartell, all of them share the ultimate responsibility for her death.

"The argument on behalf of the state of Colorado is that all three young men acted together, and it really does not matter who did what specifically. Generally speaking, when you embark with others on terrible misconduct, if you are in for a dime, you are in for a dollar," he said. 

A preliminary hearing regarding the four additional charges against Koenig is scheduled for May 7. Judge Zenisek also indicated that he would rule on any outstanding motions at that time.