Three Colorado high school students have been charged with first-degree murder in a case in which a woman died after a large rock was thrown through her windshield, the district attorney said Wednesday.
Alexa Bartell, 20, died after the landscaping rock hit her vehicle while she was driving down a street in Westminster, a Denver-area town, at around 10:45 p.m. on April 19.
Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik, Joseph Koenig and Zachary Kwak, all 18, had previously been arrested.
They were each charged with first degree murder involving extreme indifference and 12 other counts, First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King said in a statement on Wednesday.
The trio allegedly threw rocks at other vehicles that night.
Three other people were injured after rocks were thrown at vehicles within 45 minutes, the district attorney’s office said. A total of seven vehicles were affected, according to the statement.
Bartell’s vehicle was the last to be hit that night, authorities said.
The three people now charged are Jefferson County Public School Grade 12 students, a spokesperson for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said at the time of their arrest last week.
According to the sheriff’s office, the three people were in another vehicle when the rocks were thrown at other vehicles.
In addition to the murder charge, each is charged with seven counts of attempted murder, three counts of second-degree assault and three counts of attempted second-degree assault, according to the district attorney’s office. district.
One of the people whose vehicle was hit by a rock described seeing the headlights of another car in the dark and then hearing “what sounded like a shotgun blast” when his window was smashed. broken.
From court filings available online Wednesday evening, it was unclear whether the three had attorneys who could speak on their behalf. Detailed case records do not appear to be available remotely in Colorado.