Colorado
Sentencing for 2 defendants in Colorado rock-throwing case delayed until next spring
The sentencing for two of the three suspects arrested and accused in last year’s rock-throwing death of Alexa Bartell has been scheduled for May 2025, about a year after they pleaded guilty in the case. Nicholas “Mitch” James Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak reached plea agreements with the prosecution in Jefferson County in May.
Twenty-year-old Bartell was struck and killed late at night on April 19, 2023, when she was struck by a rock that was thrown into her windshield. Several others were injured in similar incidents with what authorities described as “large landscaping rocks,” concrete, and in one case, a statue.
Karol-Chik pleaded guilty on May 15 for his role in a series of rock-throwing attacks between Feb. 25, 2023, and April 19, 2023. In that agreement, the prosecution dismissed the original charges and added three new charges including second-degree murder, criminal attempt to commit murder in the first degree, and crime of violence.
According to the plea agreement, prosecutors said Karol-Chik would serve a minimum of 35 years and up to 72 years in the Department of Corrections. The judge said the deal did not allow for sentencing in the youth offender program. Prosecutors told the court that Bartell’s family did agree to the plea deal.
Kwak pleaded guilty on May 10 to three new charges, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and criminal attempt to commit assault, in an agreement reached with the prosecution. As a result of that agreement, the prosecution dismissed the original 13 charges, including murder and attempted murder.
According to prosecutors, the deals with Karol-Chik and Kwak are dependent on their full cooperation, including testimony against the third suspect, Joseph Koenig. Earlier this year, investigators revealed that they believe Koenig was the one who threw the fatal rock at Bartell’s car.
The trial for Koenig has been rescheduled for April 11, 2025 through April 25, 2025. Koenig’s trial was initially scheduled for July and August but was rescheduled after a court-ordered evaluation.
Sentencing for Karol-Chik and Kwak has been scheduled for after Koenig’s trial, May 1 and May 2, respectively.
Colorado
Residents rally to save Colorado Springs library on brink of closure
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – Hundreds of Colorado Springs residents showed up at the Pikes Peak Library District Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday night in a last-ditch effort to save the Rockrimmon Library.
The library is set to close December 1. This comes after the board voted to not renew the library’s lease due to financial issues.
In a statement posted on their website on November 8, the board called the decision to close Rockrimmon a difficult one.
“A library provides access to resources and materials to everyone in the community, so considering a closure goes against the grain of our hopes for PPLD. However, our District provides access to nearly 700,000 people across El Paso County. We must make decisions that sustain the entire District.”
More than 250 community members showed up to Wednesday’s board meeting to show their support for keeping the Rockrimmon location open with another 119 tuning in virtually.
Former Rockrimmon Library manager Steve Abbott said he was glad to see the turnout.
“It shows that the community will not give up and they are going to fight to keep this library open,” he said.
For most of the almost five-hour meeting, 43 speakers took turns pleading with board members to postpone the library’s closure, extend the lease another year, and reconsider their decision to close the library in the first place.
One of those who spoke before the board, Abbott said closing the library will leave a massive gap for the 30,000 people who live in the area.
“It leaves a big library desert in the Rockrimmon area,” he said. “For a child to use a library now, they’ll have to go over I-25, under I-25, over Academy, under Academy to get to a library, and it’s six miles away from where Rockrimmon was.”
Speaker and Rockrimmon resident Jennifer Walker said closing the library would also deprive the area of a much-needed community center.
“There is no YMCA, there’s nothing else,” she said. “This is where we meet other moms when we’re desperate to talk to another human being that’s not a toddler, this is where we go to work when we need a quiet space, this is where the elderly come to use the computer or to check out books.”
The fate of the Rockrimmon Library was not on the board’s agenda and those who left the meeting tell 11 News the meeting ended with no resolution.
Walker said residents are still exploring their legal options.
Copyright 2024 KKTV. All rights reserved.
Colorado
What’s the latest on the Colorado River negotiations?
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a breakdown Wednesday of five potential paths forward for the fragile state-to-state negotiations surrounding Colorado River operating guidelines that must be updated by 2026.
The Colorado River, which is Southern Nevada’s primary source of water, holds a precarious future as the basin experiences historic drought and state leaders disagree on how to deal with shortages. The range of alternatives is possibly the last major announcement about negotiations to come from the Bureau of Reclamation under the Biden-Harris administration.
“We have worked tirelessly over the past several years to bring Colorado River Basin stakeholders together for a transparent and inclusive post-2026 process,” Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said in a statement. “Today, we show our collective work. These alternatives represent a responsible range from which to build the best and most robust path forward for the Basin.”
What to know heading into 2025
The breakdown between two coalitions of states, the Upper and Lower Basins, centers around whether the Upper Basin — Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming — should be required to take cuts to its water allocation past what’s known as the river’s “structural deficit,” or the 1.5 million acre-feet lost to evaporation and transport. The Upper Basin has argued that it takes too many cuts already because of its reliance on snowpack instead of big reservoirs.
The Lower Basin also has called for smaller reservoirs in the Upper Basin states to be included in discussions about cuts in water usage across the system.
Notably, one of the five alternatives is based on proposals from Native American tribes, calling for the government to account for undeveloped tribal water.
The acknowledgement of the ongoing duel between the Upper and Lower Basins is the “Basin Hybrid” alternative, which appears to fall somewhere down the middle of the two coalition’s proposals.
In a statement, Upper Basin Commissioner and Colorado negotiator Becky Mitchell said it’s too early to speak directly about the five alternatives from the Bureau of Reclamation.
“Colorado continues to stand firmly behind the Upper Division States’ Alternative, which performs best according to Reclamation’s own modeling and directly meets the purpose and need of this federal action,” she said.
The Lower Basin states of Nevada, California and Arizona didn’t immediately release a statement when the announcement was released at 1 p.m.
All seven state negotiators will convene in Las Vegas in early December at the Colorado River Water Users Association conference, where experts and officials will discuss what’s to come from negotiations under President-elect Donald Trump.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.
Colorado
Warming and dry trend kicks off across Colorado
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