One of the three teenagers involved in a spree of rock-throwing attacks last April that targeted seven drivers and killed 20-year-old Alexa Bartell pleaded guilty to three felony charges Friday.
Alexa Bartell, 20 (Provided by Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department)
Zachary Kwak, 18, pleaded guilty to three felony charges as part of a plea deal during a Friday disposition hearing in First Judicial District Court. Kwak pleaded guilty to first-degree assault, second-degree assault and criminal attempt to commit second-degree assault.
In a sentencing addendum, prosecutors and the defense agreed to a minimum sentence of 20 years in the Department of Corrections and a maximum sentence of 32 years.
Kwak will not be sentenced to the Youthful Offender System — a medium security prison in Pueblo that houses male and female offenders between ages the ages of 14 and 19 — First Judicial District Judge Christopher Zenisek said in Friday’s hearing.
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A sentencing hearing has been set for Sept. 3, and both bond and remaining jury trail dates have been vacated, Zenisek said Friday.
In previous hearings, prosecutors said that despite not being able to tell who threw which rocks, all three men — Kwak, 19-year-old Joseph Koenig and 18-year-old Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik — were complicit because there was “excitement” in the truck as they drove around the night of April 19 and the teens cheered after the rock hit Bartell’s vehicle, Jefferson County sheriff’s Detective Dan Manka testified.
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