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A 25-year-old white man who stabbed a Black school scholar to dying throughout an opportunity encounter on the University of Maryland’s most important campus in 2017 in what prosecutors stated was a racially motivated hate crime was sentenced on Thursday to life in jail.
The man, Sean C. Urbanski, was convicted in December 2019 by a jury in Prince George’s County, Md., of first-degree homicide within the dying of Richard W. Collins III.
Mr. Collins, 23, was days away from graduating from close by Bowie State University and had lately been commissioned as a second lieutenant within the Army. He was making ready to maneuver to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., for coaching in defending the nation towards chemical assaults.
“He was on a pinnacle of doing great things,” Dawn Collins, Mr. Collins’s mom, stated at a information convention on Thursday after the sentencing.
The 2017 encounter between the lads was transient and violent, and the killing solid a pall over what would have been a festive interval on each campuses.
According to the University of Maryland police, within the early hours of May 20, Mr. Collins and two pals had been standing at a bus cease in entrance of a dormitory on Maryland’s campus once they heard Mr. Urbanski, then 22, screaming. They watched as he approached them.
“Step left, step left if you know what’s best for you,” Mr. Urbanski stated, based on the police. Mr. Collins stated no, and Mr. Urbanski plunged a three- to four-inch silver blade into his chest, the police stated a witness had informed them.
When cops arrived, they discovered Mr. Urbanski, a University of Maryland scholar, sitting on a bench just a few ft from the place witnesses stated he had simply stabbed Mr. Collins, officers stated. Mr. Collins was pronounced lifeless after 4 a.m., simply three days earlier than he was scheduled to graduate from Bowie State.
At the time, Mr. Urbanski’s assault didn’t qualify as a hate crime underneath Maryland legislation, officers stated. Mr. Collins’s dad and mom efficiently lobbied to vary the legislation, which went into impact in October. Now, a suspect’s prior exercise, not simply rhetoric on the scene, could be thought-about proof of intent. That new legislation was named after Mr. Collins.
Under Maryland legislation, offenders sentenced to life in jail are eligible for parole after 15 years, based on the Prince George’s County state’s lawyer, Aisha Braveboy. William Brennan, a lawyer for Mr. Urbanski, stated his shopper could possibly be eligible for parole sooner, accounting for time already served and good habits.
After the assault, officers stated they had been investigating the episode as a attainable hate crime.
Mr. Urbanski was a member of a Facebook group that had trafficked in anti-Black and sexist memes. The group was shut down after the assault, and its administrator, Alex Goodman, stated it had been meant as satire. “Nothing is meant as true,” Mr. Goodman informed The New York Times. “I condemn those who believe in white supremacy.”
At the information convention on Thursday, a prosecutor within the case stated Mr. Urbanski had had loads of entry to such messaging.
“The number of racist and hate memes that were on his phone were just baffling,” stated Jonathan Church, a deputy Prince George’s state’s lawyer.
Mr. Brennan stated at sentencing that his shopper was “terribly remorseful” and that he deeply regretted what he had done.
Elizabeth Urbanski, Mr. Urbanski’s mother, expressed her “horror and devastation” over her son’s crime. She told Mr. Collins’s parents, according to The Associated Press, “Your son Richard should be here, and it’s my son Sean’s fault that he’s not.”
At the news conference, Ms. Collins said her son had been looking forward to a bright future.
“He had aspired to be the next Gen. Colin Powell,” Ms. Collins said, referring to the retired four-star general and former secretary of state. “And there was nothing that was going to stop him.”
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