On Thursday, May 1, a Colorado man who pleaded guilty to the murder of a 20-year-old woman who died after being hit with a large rock in her car was sentenced.
Nicholas Karol-Chik, 20, was sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges including second-degree murder, 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 was killed on April 19, 2023, when a large rock was thrown through her car window.
Karol-Chik entered into those pleas as part of a deal with prosecutors that also required him to testify in the trial of his co-defendant, Joseph Koenig, in exchange for a reduced sentence.
Karol-Chik was called to testify twice during the trial. Prosecutors from the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office (FJDAO) stated at the hearing on Thursday that he had met the terms of his agreement.
According to a FJDAO release, the judge sentenced Karol-Chik to 45 years in prison for murder with a crime of violence enhancement and 24 years for criminal attempt to commit murder.
According to the release, those sentences will run concurrently for a total 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 whom I thought were friends caused this tragedy,” Karol-Chik said during the hearing on Thursday, according to the release.
He then addressed the victim’s family, saying, “I hope that one day you can find it in your heart to forgive.”
The victim’s mother had spoken earlier in the proceedings, according to the release. “These three spent the evening laughing, hunting, and looking for destruction,” the victim’s mother said, urging the judge to impose Karol-Chik’s maximum 72-year sentence.
Meanwhile, Deputy District Attorney Brynn Chase stated in court that by avoiding a charge of first-degree murder, Karol-Chik would receive a reduced sentence regardless of how many years the judge sentenced him to.
“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 told the court. “There’s a sadness attached to that, but it is the measure of justice that is required here.”
Karol-Chik testified during the trial that he gave Koenig the nine-pound rock that killed Bartell.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the two men and co-defendant Zachary Kwak drove by the wreck and took photos without checking on Bartell.
Kwak took the first plea deal in the case, followed by Karol-Chik in May 2024.
Koenig, who threw the fatal rock, was convicted of first-degree murder with an enhancing count of extreme indifference last week, resulting in a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.
