UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (AP) — A jury is expected to hear attorneys’ closing arguments Wednesday in the trial of a white man charged with fatally stabbing a black college student at a bus stop on the University of Maryland’s campus.
Sean Urbanski, 24, is charged with murder in the May 2017 killing of 23-year-old Richard Collins III, who was days from graduating from Bowie State University when he was killed.
The Prince George’s County judge presiding over Urbanski’s trial agreed Tuesday to dismiss a hate crime charge against the former University of Maryland student. Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Hill Jr. ruled prosecutors didn’t meet their legal burden of showing that racial hatred motivated Urbanski to stab Collins.
A prosecutor has said a toxic mixture of alcohol and racist propaganda emboldened Urbanski to act on his hatred of black people. Urbanski had saved at least six photographs of racist memes on his cellphone and liked a Facebook group called “Alt-Reich: Nation,” according to prosecutors.
During the trial’s opening statements last week, defense attorney William Brennan said there was no evidence that Urbanski hated or advocated violence against any ethnic group or race.
Brennan said the judge will instruct jurors on both first- and second-degree murder charges before they begin deliberating. Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of life without the possibility of parole if Urbanski is convicted of first-degree murder. The maximum prison sentence for a second-degree murder conviction would be 30 years.