At 18, He Killed a Woman by Hurling Rocks at Car, Then Took a Pic of Wreck as She Lay Dying. He Will Now Serve 45 Years in Prison

A Colorado man who pleaded guilty to the murder of a 20-year-old woman who died after having a large rock hurled at her car was sentenced on Thursday, May 1.

Nicholas Karol-Chik, 20, was sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of murder in the second degree, criminal attempt to commit murder and a crime of violence enhancement to the murder charge.

Those charges all stem from the death of Alexa Bartell, who died on April 19, 2023, when a large rock was hurled through the window of her car.

Karol-Chik agreed to those pleas as part of a deal with prosecutors that also required him to testify at the trial of his co-defendant, Joseph Koenig, in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Karol-Chik was called to testify twice in court during the trial. Prosecutors with the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office (FJDAO) said at the hearing on Thursday that he had fulfilled the requirements of his deal.

The judge sentenced Karol-Chik to 45 years in prison on the murder charge with the crime of violence enhancement and 24 years on the criminal attempt to commit murder charge, according to a release from the FJDAO. The release also says that those sentences will run concurrently as a combined sentence of 45 years, followed by five years of parole on the murder charge and three years on the criminal attempt charge.

“I will forever have to live with the fact that my desire to impress people that I thought were friends caused this tragedy,” Karol-Chik said during the hearing on Thursday, per the release.

He then addressed the family of the victim, saying, “I hope that one day you can find it in your heart to forgive.”

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The victim’s mother spoke earlier in the proceedings, according to the release. “These three spent the evening laughing, hunting, and looking for destruction,” the victim’s mother said while asking the judge to impose the maximum 72-year sentence on Karol-Chik.

Meanwhile, Deputy District Attorney Brynn Chase said in court that by avoiding a charge of first-degree murder, Karol-Chik was already getting a reduced sentence regardless of how many years the judge sentenced him to serve.

“With the level of seriousness of the offense, there’s just no way to atone for what the three of them did but for a substantial sentence to the Department of Corrections,” Chase said. “There’s a sadness attached to that, but it is the measure of justice that is required here.”

Karol-Chik testified at trial that on the night of Bartell’s murder, he provided Koenig with the nine-pound rock that fatally struck the victim.

The two men, along with co-defendant Zachary Kwak, then drove by the wreck and took photos of the scene without ever checking on Bartell, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case.

Kwak was the first to take a plea deal in the case, followed soon after by Karol-Chik in May 2024.

Koenig, who was responsible for throwing the fatal rock, was convicted of first-degree murder with an enhancing count of extreme indifference last week, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.