The penalty for the murder of a lady who was 20 years old and died after having a huge rock thrown at her vehicle was handed down on Thursday, May 1. The guy who pled guilty to the crime was sentenced on Thursday.
After pleading guilty to charges of murder in the second degree, criminal attempt to commit murder, and a crime of violence enhancement to the murder charge, Nicholas Karol-Chik, who was 20 years old at the time, was given a sentence of forty-five years in prison.
These accusations are all related to the death of Alexa Bartell, who passed away on April 19, 2023, as a result of a huge rock being thrown through the glass of her vehicle.
In return for a reduced sentence, Karol-Chik consented to those pleas as part of a bargain with the prosecution. As part of the agreement, he was also forced to testify at the trial of his co-defendant, Joseph Koenig.
During the course of the trial, Karol-Chik was required to testify in court many times. During the hearing that took place on Thursday, prosecutors from the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office (FJDAO) said that he had satisfied all of the conditions that were stipulated in his agreement.
According to a press statement issued by the Federal Justice Department Affairs Office (FJDAO), the court handed down a sentence of 45 years in prison for the murder accusation with the crime of violence enhancement and 24 years for the criminal attempt to commit murder charge against Karol-Chik. It is also stated in the release that these sentences will be served consecutively as a total term of 45 years, which will be followed by five years of parole for the murder charge and three years of parole for the criminal attempt charge.
Karol-Chik is quoted as saying, “I will forever have to live with the fact that my desire to impress people that I thought were friends caused this tragedy,” as stated in the release. This statement was made during the hearing that took place on Thursday.
His next statement was directed for the family of the victim, and it was as follows: “I hope that one day you can find it in your heart to forgive.”
A statement made by the mother of the victim was made earlier in the proceedings, as stated in the release. “These three spent the evening laughing, hunting, and looking for destruction,” the mother of the victim stated as she asked the court to decide whether or not to inflict the maximum punishment of 72 years on Karol-Chik.
In the meanwhile, Deputy District Attorney Brynn Chase said in court that Karol-Chik was already receiving a reduced sentence since he was not charged with first-degree murder. This was the case regardless of the number of years that the judge ordered him to serve.
“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 said to reporters. “There’s a sadness attached to that, but it is the measure of justice that is required here.”
The testimony of Karol-Chik during the trial revealed that on the evening of Bartell’s murder, he was the one who gave Koenig the nine-pound rock that was used to strike the victim and cause his death.
According to an affidavit of probable cause that was submitted in the case, the two men, along with the co-defendant Zachary Kwak, drove past the accident site and snapped photographs of it without ever checking on Bartell.
During the course of the case, Kwak was the first individual to accept a plea bargain, and Karol-Chik did so shortly after in May of 2024.
Last Monday, Koenig, who was responsible for hurling the rock that ultimately proved to be lethal, was found guilty of first-degree murder with an additional count of extreme indifference. This conviction entails a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the chance of release.