A 25-year-old white man who stabbed a black student to death during a casual encounter on the main campus of the University of Maryland in 2017, which prosecutors said was a racially motivated hate crime, was sentenced on Thursday. life imprisonment.
The man, Sean C. Urbanski, was convicted in December 2019 by a jury in Prince George County, Maryland, for first-degree murder in the death of Richard W. Collins III.
Collins, 23, was just days away from graduating from nearby Bowie State University, and was recently commissioned as second lieutenant in the Army. He was preparing to move to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, to train in defending the country against chemical attacks.
“He was at the height of doing great things,” said Dawn Collins, Collins’ mother, at a news conference on Thursday after the sentence.
The 2017 men’s encounter was brief and violent, and the killing covered up what would have been a festive period on both campuses.
According to the University of Maryland police, in the early hours of May 20, Collins and two friends were at a bus stop in front of a dormitory on the Maryland campus when they heard Urbanski, then 22, shouting. They watched as he approached them.
“Step left, step left if you know what’s best for you,” said Urbanski, according to the police. Mr. Collins said no, and Mr. Urbanski nailed a 7 to 10 cm silver blade to his chest, a police witness said.
When the police arrived, they found Urbanski, a student at the University of Maryland, sitting on a bench a few feet from where witnesses said he had just stabbed Collins, officials said. Mr. Collins was pronounced dead after 4 am, just three days before his graduation from Bowie State.
At the time, Urbanski’s attack was not qualified as a hate crime under Maryland law, officials said. Collins’ parents successfully lobbied to change the law, which went into effect in October. Now, a suspect’s previous activity, not just the rhetoric on the scene, can be considered evidence of intent. This new law was named after Mr. Collins.
Under Maryland law, offenders sentenced to life in prison are entitled to parole after 15 years, according to Prince George County State Attorney Aisha Braveboy. William Brennan, Urbanski’s lawyer, said his client may be eligible for parole earlier, counting time already served and good behavior.
After the attack, authorities said they were investigating the episode as a possible hate crime.
Mr. Urbanski was a member of a Facebook group that trafficked anti-black and sexist memes. The group was closed after the attack and its administrator, Alex Goodman, said the intention was to be a satire. “Nothing is considered true,” Goodman told The New York Times. “I condemn those who believe in white supremacy.”
At a news conference on Thursday, a prosecutor in the case said that Urbanski had plenty of access to these messages.
“The number of racist and hate memes on your phone was simply disconcerting,” said Jonathan Church, a deputy attorney general for Prince George.
Mr. Brennan said in the sentence that his client was “extraordinarily sorry” and that he deeply regretted what he had done.
Elizabeth Urbanski, Mr. Urbanski’s mother, expressed her “horror and devastation” about her son’s crime. She told Mr. Collins’ parents, according to The Associated Press, “Your son Richard should be here, and it is my son Sean’s fault that he is not.”
At the news conference, Collins said his son was looking forward to a bright future.
“He aspired to be the next general Colin Powell,” said Collins, referring to the retired four-star general and former secretary of state. “And there was nothing that could stop him.”