Brazen defense of teenage boy who killed young girl in rock attack that's every driver's worst nightmare

Daily Mail​

22-04-2025

A teenage boy facing a murder charge is claiming his undeveloped brain should lessen the punishment for his crime.
Joseph Koenig, now 20, allegedly threw a nine-pound rock through Alexa Bartell's windshield on April 19, 2023, killing her.
Now, the defense is calling on expert testimony to argue Koenig's 18-year-old brain at the time wasn't developed enough to be considered an adult and that his charges should be dropped to manslaughter, The Denver Post said.
They brought on Temple University Psychology Professor, Laurence Steinberg, who claimed Koenig's brain would 'not yet [have] a good braking system in place' at the time of the crime.
'Adolescence is a time when the accelerator in the brain is pushed down to the floor — that is the limbic system,' he testified.
He said the young man would have been egged on by his friends Nicholas 'Mitch' Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak, both then-18, which would have caused a heightened emotional sense that would compromise his decision-making skills, The Post said.
Steinberg said that although an 18-year-old's brain can operate like an adult, up to the age of 21, they can act immaturely when in heightened states and when they're with their peers.
The psychologist also argued that young people are more impulsive and focused on short-term reward.
Bartell's fatal incident was not the only time Koenig and his friends had thrown rocks at cars, The Post said, but on the night of attack, Karol-Chik and Kwak were allegedly cheering Koenig on and encouraging each other to throw rocks.
The psychologist argued this would have compromised the then-teen's decision-making.
All three were charged with the 20-year-old woman's death.
Prosecutors say the men had thrown giant landscaping rocks and hit six other cars that night, but all the other drivers were uninjured.
Bartell was on the phone with a friend when a rock smashed into her car and she went quiet. Her friend tracked her phone and drove to the location to find her dead in her car, which had plowed off the road into a field.
A friend of the trio told police he'd watched them several hours earlier as they loaded a truck with landscaping rocks taken from a Walmart parking lot. The friend claimed the three boys picked up 'as many as they could carry.'
He said he knew 'something bad was going to happen' so asked Koenig, Karol-Chik and Kwak to take him home.
The three alleged killers then patrolled roads in the area and searched for passing cars to target.
Kwak said they would use 'marine terms' when launching the rocks, adding: 'Mitch would say things like, 'contact left,' before Joseph would throw the rock at a car on the left side of theirs.'
He said the rock which killed Bartell made a 'very loud noise... like a rail gun' when it struck her windshield. A bloodstained rock was discovered next to the young woman's yellow Chevy Spark.
Koenig was described by a friend as someone who likes creating 'chaos' and would often act in a destructive manner.
'Joseph and Mitch were talking about them now being 'blood brothers' and they could never speak of the incident,' Kwak added.
The three reportedly met up the following day to 'get their stories straight.'
Karol-Chik and Kwak were interviewed by detectives and each gave different accounts about who threw the rock. Koenig refused to speak to police.
The affidavit said one of the suspects said he felt 'a hint of guilt' and revealed the men were traced using data from cell towers in the area.