Attorneys for Sean Urbanski, the white man charged with murder along with a hate crime in the stabbing death of a Bowie State graduate at the University of Maryland last year, have asked a judge to bar evidence linking him to a since-deleted White Supremacist Facebook page called “Alt-Reich: Nation.”
The Washington Post reports that in a motion filed in Prince George’s County Court, William C. Brennan Jr. and John M. McKenna wrote that they believe “the state intends to offer the images, the survey and the Facebook page into evidence at the trial of this case. Those images, survey and Facebook page are particularly offensive, extremely prejudicial, highly inflammatory, irrelevant and not otherwise admissible.”
When announcing the hate crime charge against Urbanski in October, Prince George’s State’s Attorney Angela D. Alsobrooks said a review of Urbanski’s phone and social media activity led investigators to conclude that he attacked 23-year-old Richard Collins III on May 20, 2017because of his race.
Collins was visiting friends in College Park when Urbanski is alleged to have stabbed him in what police call a “totally unprovoked” attack.
Collins refused to move and Urbanski stabbed him with a folding knife before running away. Collins, 23, had just been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and was days away from graduating from Bowie State University when he was killed.
–#YaleWhileBlack: White woman calls police on Black grad student for napping in dorm–
Urbanski’s attorneys are arguing that the content from the Facebook page, along with other “particularly offensive” evidence discovered — including a group message with survey questions on his phone and racist cartoon images — is “not relevant” and not connected Collins’ death.
The attorneys argue that drugs and alcohol – and not racism – were a factor in the case and introducing the racism aspect would “confuse” the issues. They have asked that if the judge rules the social media evidence can be used, that there be separate trials for the murder and hate crime charges.
A trial has been scheduled for July.
–Black Navy vet brutally beaten and called racial slurs by four white security guards–