NewsLocal News

Actions

Judge drops hate crime charge against Sean Urbanski in murder of Richard Collins

Trial to continue on murder charges
Sean Christopher Urbanski.jpg
Posted
and last updated

COLLEGE PARK (AP) — A judge has dismissed a hate crime charge against a white man who fatally stabbed a black college student at the University of Maryland.

But a murder trial will continue Wednesday for 24-year-old Sean Urbanski.

A defense attorney and a state's attorney's office spokeswoman said Tuesday that a judge agreed to acquit Urbanski of the hate crime charge.

Jurors in the case are expected to begin deliberating on Wednesday.

Prosecutors say Urbanski saved at least six photographs of racist memes on his cellphone and liked a Facebook group called “Alt-Reich: Nation.”

Defense attorneys say the May 2017 killing of Richard Collins III was not racially motivated.