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Two other drivers suffered minor injuries, according to investigators.
The office of Karol-Chik’s lawyer, Holly Gummerson, and Koenig’s lawyer, Tom Ward, declined to comment.
A messages left for Kwak’s lawyer, Emily Boehne, was not immediately returned. During a brief afternoon court hearing, the lawyers all declined to have the charges read.
According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Bartell was talking on the phone with a friend when she was hit by the rock on April 19.
After the call went silent, the friend tracked Bartell’s location with a phone app and found the woman dead in her car, which had crashed into a field.
Karol-Chik told investigators that Koenig slowed down so Kwak could get a photo of Bartell’s car after it crashed into a field.
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He said all three got excited every time they hit a car with landscaping rocks taken from a Walmart parking lot, but acknowledged he felt “a hint of guilt” passing by her car, according to court documents.
Kwak said he took the photo because he thought that Karol-Chik or Koenig would want to have a “memento” of what had happened, according to the arrest affidavits.
Karol-Chik told investigators with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office that he and Koenig had thrown rocks and even a statue at passing cars on at least 10 other days before Bartell was killed.
Kwak heard about what they had been doing and asked to join them, according to Karol-Chik’s account in the affidavits.
Karol-Chik and Kwak offered different accounts about who threw the fatal rock.
Koenig did not speak to investigators after he was arrested, according to the arrest affidavits.
