Jury deliberates in college student's fatal stabbing

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — A white man who stabbed a dark college pupil to death at a bus pause on the College of Maryland’s campus admits he applied the killing and concedes he’s responsible of against the law.

Nonetheless a jury must decide whether Sean Urbanski’s fatal stabbing of 23-year-extinct Richard Collins III in Can even 2017 used to be a premeditated, intentional act of violent despise or an alcohol-fueled killing committed by an “out-of-his-mind inebriated.”

Jurors started deliberating Wednesday after hearing closing arguments in a case that prosecutors framed as a despise crime committed by a 22-year-extinct man whose mind had been poisoned by racist propaganda.

A Prince George’s County decide threw out a despise crime price against Urbanski on Tuesday, leaving jurors to decide on between two spoil expenses.

Prosecutors entreated the 12 jurors to convict Urbanski of first-diploma spoil, a price punishable by life in penal complex with out the opportunity of parole. Protection attorneys argued the evidence most attention-grabbing helps a 2nd-diploma spoil conviction, which could maybe maybe result in a maximum sentence of 30 years in penal complex.

Protection prison professional John McKenna said there used to be no evidence or testimony to support a racial motive for the killing.

“Sean used to be uninteresting inebriated, and the actual poison in his veins used to be the alcohol,” McKenna said.

A prosecutor, Jonathon Church, said Urbanski already brandished a 3-drag folding knife when he emerged from the shadows of a wooded declare and approached Collins on the bus pause.

“He had it willing on narrative of he knew in his mind what he used to be going to achieve,” Church said of the knife.

Circuit Court docket Take Lawrence Hill Jr. ruled Tuesday that prosecutors didn’t meet their appropriate burden of revealing racial hatred motivated Urbanski to stab Collins.

Nonetheless the decide allowed prosecutors to display evidence that Urbanski had saved a minimum of six photos of racist memes on his cell phone and favored a Fb community called “Alt-Reich: Nation.” Church described among the memes at some level of closing arguments.

“He poisoned his mind with white supremacist propaganda, Nazi-vogue propaganda,” the prosecutor said.

Urbanski, now 24, had been enrolled on the College of Maryland’s College Park campus and had been provocative with guests at bars for hours before the killing.

Collins used to be commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Navy at the moment before his death and used to be getting willing to be deployed to the demilitarized zone between North Korea and South Korea. He used to be days from graduating from Bowie Sing College, a historically dark college, and used to be celebrating with a buddy at bars on the evening of his killing.

McKenna said an educated take into narrative for the defense concluded that Urbanski’s blood alcohol stage used to be extra than twice and as a lot as a couple times the correct restrict on the time of the killing. The defense prison professional argued his consumer used to be too inebriated to bear the intent or premeditation vital to support a vital-diploma spoil conviction.

“He committed against the law. Absolutely,” McKenna said. “Upright no longer first-diploma spoil.”

It used to be appropriate after 3 a.m. on a Saturday when Urbanski approached Collins whereas he waited for an Uber driver with a buddy, a white man, and an Asian girl whom they met on the bus pause. Urbanski had watched them for extra than 10 minutes before he snappy left and then returned, brandishing a folding knife as he approached the guests from a wooded declare, in line with prosecutors.

“Step left, step left can bear to you realize what’s most attention-grabbing for you,” Urbanski suggested them, in line with police.

“No,” Collins said before Urbanski stabbed him once in his chest.

Police arrested Sean Urbanski on the bus pause, 50 feet (15 meters) from the set up Collins used to be death. After fatally stabbing Collins, Urbanski folded the knife, clipped it onto his pocket and sat down on a bench until police arrived, prosecutors said.

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This list has been up as a lot as now to lawful the spelling of the first title of prosecutor Jonathon Church.