Three Colorado high school students have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a woman who threw a large rock through her windshield, the district attorney said Wednesday.
Alexa Bartel, 20, died on April 19 at 10:45 p.m. when a landscaping rock hit her vehicle while she was walking down a street in the Denver area of ​​Westminster.
Nicholas “Mitch” Carroll-Sick, Joseph Koenig and Zachary Kwok, 18, were previously arrested.
They are each charged with first degree murder gross negligence and 12 other counts, First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King said A statement on Wednesday.
The trio allegedly threw stones at other vehicles that night.
According to the district collector’s office, 3 more people were injured when stones were pelted on the vehicles within a span of 45 minutes. A total of 7 vehicles were smashed.
Bartell’s vehicle was the last to be hit that night, authorities said.
All three men now charged are 12th-graders in Jefferson County Public Schools, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said when they were arrested last week.
The three were allegedly driving another vehicle when rocks were thrown at the other vehicles, the sheriff’s office said.
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.
One of the people who crashed into a rock described seeing the headlights of another car in the dark and then hearing “what sounded like a gunshot” as his window shattered.
It was not clear from court records available online Wednesday night whether the trio had attorneys who could speak on their behalf. Detailed case records do not appear to be remotely available in Colorado.
