Driver convicted of first-degree murder in case of Colorado teens who threw fatal rock at car
The last of three friends accused of killing a driver in Colorado by throwing a rock through the windshield of her car was convicted of first-degree murder Friday.The teens were driving around suburban Denver in 2023, throwing rocks at passing cars, when one struck and killed 20-year-old Alexa Bartell in a crime prosecutors classified as murder.After two of the defendants had taken plea deals, the jury found the third, Joseph Koenig, guilty at the conclusion of a two-week trial during which jurors had to wade through the shifting and competing versions of the truth offered by the defendants.Sentencing is scheduled for June 3.Koenig, now 20, insisted that another person in the trio threw the rock that killed Bartell.
But the two friends, whose agreements with prosecutors could lead to shorter prison sentences, said Koenig threw it.Chief Deputy District Attorney Katharine Decker told jurors the damage to Bartell’s car was consistent with Koenig, who is left-handed and was driving, throwing the rock, shotput-style, out the driver’s side window at Bartell’s car as one of the friends, Nicholas Karol-Chik, testified.Even if jurors weren’t convinced Koenig threw the rock, she had urged them to still find him guilty of first-degree murder as a conspirator with his friends, who both pleaded guilty to lesser charges.The defense didn’t dispute that Koenig participated in the night of rock-throwing but said the third defendant, Zachary Kwak, threw the fatal rock.
His attorneys argued Koenig did not know anyone had been hurt until Bartell’s car went off the road, and that he had borderline personality disorder, which affected his impulse control and judgment.One of Koenig’s lawyers, Martin Stuart, told jurors to instead find him guilty of manslaughter, the least serious charge he faced in Bartell’s death, because he didn’t knowingly try to kill her.Jurors also had the option of finding Koenig guilty of manslaughter as a conspirator, even if they didn’t ...