A judge sentenced Sean Urbanski, who is white, to life behind bars for the first-degree murder of Army Lt. Richard Collins III, who is Black. News4’s Aimee Cho has the new reaction from Collins’ family after the sentencing and the push for justice they’ve made in their son’s name.
A white man was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for stabbing a Black college student to death on the University of Maryland's campus in what prosecutors say was a racially motivated crime.
Richard Collins III was days away from graduating from Bowie State University and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army when he was killed in May 2017. He was 23.
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Collins was waiting at a University of Maryland bus stop when Sean Urbanski walked up, told him to "step left," then stabbed him in the chest.
In December 2019, a Prince George’s County jury convicted Urbanski, now 25, of first-degree murder.
Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said in a statement that Urbanski was a member of a racist social media group and singled Collins out for the attack at a bus stop.
Prosecutors have said that a mixture of alcohol and racist propaganda motivated Urbanski to act on a hatred for Black people.
Defense attorney John McKenna said in court that his client was drunk and there was no evidence or testimony to support a racial motive for the killing.
A judge dismissed a hate crime charge against Urbanski before jurors began deliberating, ruling that prosecutors didn't meet their legal burden of showing that racial hatred motivated Urbanski to stab Collins.
In a law named for Collins, Maryland recently strengthened its hate crime law so prosecutors don’t have to prove hate was the only motivating factor in committing a crime.
