Second rock-thrower in fatal Colorado spree sentenced to 32 years in prison
Published in News & Features
DENVER — The second of three men who hurled rocks at passing cars in a fatal Jefferson County spree two years ago was sentenced to 32 years in prison Friday.
Zachary Kwak, 20, received the maximum possible sentence on convictions of assault and attempted assault in the April 19, 2023, spree in which he and two other then-18-year-old men threw rocks at passing cars.
The trio ultimately killed a passing driver, 20-year-old Alexa Bartell, when one of the teenagers threw a 9.3-pound rock through her windshield as she drove on Indiana Street near the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge.
Kwak apologized during his sentencing Friday.
“I can see the full effects of what I’ve done,” he said. “And I know that I cannot change it. And all I can do now is just say I am sorry.”
Kwak’s sentencing came a day after another participant, Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik, 20, was sentenced to 45 years in prison on a second-degree murder conviction.
Karol-Chik and Kwak each pleaded guilty to lesser charges and agreed to testify against the third participant in the spree, Joseph Koenig.
Koenig, 20, was convicted of first-degree murder in an April jury trial and will be sentenced to life in prison in June.
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