One of three high school seniors charged with throwing rocks at cars in Colorado last year — one of the incidents killed a 20-year-old woman — admitted guilt on Friday for assault and attempt to commit assault.
The plea deal means 19-year-old Zachary Kwak will serve between 20 and 32 years in prison after pleading guilty, and all other charges against him were dropped. The information was provided by the District Attorney’s Office of Gilpin and Jefferson Counties..
Kwak allegedly threw the rock that led to the death of Alexa Bartell on April 19, 2023.
Kwak and two other teens were initially charged with first degree murder and 13 other charges in a series of rock-throwing incidents, as reported by CrimeOnline. Bartell was driving northbound on Indiana Street near the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, on the phone with a friend, when she was hit in the head by a rock, causing her death.The friend tracked the phone and found Bartell dead in her vehicle, which had veered into a field.
Her friend drove toward Bartell’s vehicle intentionally and slowed down to take a photograph of the crashed car as a “memento” of what happened. They did not stop to help.
Investigators later discovered that the boys intentionally drove toward Bartell’s vehicle and slowed down to take a photograph of the crashed car as a “memento” of what happened. They did not stop to help.
On the same day, two other victims were injured in earlier assaults involving rocks, while seven vehicles in total sustained damage from what authorities have described as “large landscaping rocks.” According to reports, the suspects may have been traveling in a moving vehicle at the time the rocks were thrown.
The boys were eventually arrested after police identified them based on cellphone data and information from a friend who had socialized with them before they began hurling rocks at vehicles.
According to KDVR, members of Bartell’s family were in the courtroom on Friday to hear Kwak’s guilty plea. He appeared in a jail uniform, handcuffed, telling the judge he understood his plea and what it meant. He won’t be sentenced until verdicts are rendered against his co-defendants, Joseph Koenig and Nicholas Karol-Chik.
Karol-Chik’s trial is scheduled to begin on June 7, and Koenig’s on July 19, although he has a motions hearing scheduled on July 3. All three of the boys were 18 at the time they killed Bartell.
[Featured image: Alexa Bartell/Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office]