Sean Urbanski sentenced to life in killing of Black Army Lt. Richard Collins III
This case took place about three years ago. I am glad this scumbag is going away for life.
Source: WaPo.
Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/sean-urbanski-sentence-richard-collins/2021/01/14/70a58ea4-55f6-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html
Excerpt:
By
Katie Mettler
Jan. 14, 2021 at 5:15 p.m. EST
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Sean Urbanski was sentenced to life in prison Thursday afternoon in the 2017 stabbing death of Richard Collins III — a case that drew nationwide attention and prompted lawmakers to revise the hate crime statute in Maryland.
Urbanski, who is White, was arrested soon after he attacked 23-year-old Collins, who was Black, with a three-inch pocket knife at a bus stop on the University of Maryland campus in College Park. Collins was there visiting friends and was just days away from graduating with a business degree from Bowie State University. He had also been commissioned into the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant.
Urbanski, now 25, was a U-Md. student at the time of the stabbing. He was charged with first-degree murder and a hate crime after authorities discovered that he belonged to a white supremacist Facebook group called “Alt-Reich: Nation” and had racist memes stored on his phone.
During his trial in December 2019, prosecutors said that Urbanski approached Collins and two friends around 3 a.m. the night of May 20, 2017, as many area seniors were preparing for their college graduations.
“Step left, step left if you know what’s best for you,” Urbanski said to Collins, according to court documents. When the young man refused, Urbanski stabbed him.
At trial, Urbanski’s attorneys acknowledged that he killed Collins but said he was acting on an alcohol-fueled impulse. They argued that prosecutors were speculating on the motive based on a handful of vile memes pulled from about 17,000 images on Urbanski’s phone.
Despite prosecutors’ belief that Urbanski was motivated by hate in his killing of Collins, Circuit Court Judge Lawrence V. Hill Jr. threw out the hate crime charge after the state closed its case — ruling that they had not met their legal burden outlined in the state statute.
Hate crime charge dropped against former U-Md. student charged in fatal stabbing
The decision was a crushing blow for Collins’s family and the prosecutor’s office at the time, state’s attorney Aisha Braveboy said in a recent interview, and they spoke with raw emotion about the toll of decision during the sentencing hearing Thursday.
“In my opinion,” Dawn Collins said, “My son’s greatest crime was that he said no to a white man.”
Braveboy’s office had taken over the case from former state’s attorney Angela Alsobrooks, now the county executive. Collins’s parents were the first family Braveboy met with as state’s attorney, she said.
“It was, I knew, the biggest case I was going to have, at least in my first term here as state’s attorney,” Braveboy said. “And it was a case that was very near and dear to me. I went to the University of Maryland, and I knew that there was racial tension on the campus even then. And so for this to happen on a campus that I walked on at one point, it touched me.”
Prince George’s County State’s Attorney discusses the murder of Richard Collins III
Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy (D) discussed the death of 1st Lt. Richard Collins III and how his legacy continues on Jan. 11. (The Washington Post)
She said she met with Collins’s parents to reassure them, and with her prosecution team to encourage them to refocus on the remaining murder charge.
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After two hours of deliberation, the jury returned with a verdict. Braveboy said she prayed over her Bible in her office with a feeling that “justice was going to happen that day.”
“And it did,” she said.
The jury found Urbanski guilty of murder.
