Murder of Richard Collins III

Collins, 23, was an ROTC candidate at Bowie State University, set to graduate and begin his commission in the Army as a 2nd Lieutenant.[1] Collins, who was the 3rd generation of his family to join the military, attended Annapolis Area Christian School, where he played soccer and lacrosse.[1] Montrose Robinson, head of Bowie State's ROTC recruiting, described Collins as "a star, a model cadet," adding that "[h]e excelled in physical training, and he was an excellent student. He wanted to be a general officer, and he had what it would take to be a general."[1]

Sean Urbanski, 22 at the time of the incident, was a senior at the University of Maryland and grew up in Severna Park, Maryland.[5] Urbanski began school as an engineering major, but dropped out after his first year. After attending Anne Arundel Community College, Urbanski re-enrolled at Maryland as a kinesiology major in 2016.[6] Urbanski's affiliation with an alt-right Facebook group known as "Alt-Reich: Nation", as well as Urbanski's possession of racist images on his phone, became a major point of contention for his trial. Responding to the page Urbanski belonged to, University of Maryland police chief said "When I look at the information that’s contained on that website, suffice it to say that it’s despicable, it shows extreme bias against women, Latinos, persons of Jewish faith and especially African Americans.”[7]

After Urbanski's indictment, his trial was delayed four times. Initially set for January 2018, Urbanski's lawyers requested the first and second delays (pushing the trial to 2019), claiming a large amount of video to review, and in light of motions filed to bar Urbanski's phone as evidence and splitting the murder and hate crime trials up.[8][9] State prosecutors requested the third delay, for a July 2019 court date, due to personnel turnover in the Prince George's County state's attorney's office.[10] In July 2019, after a judge ruled Urbanski would face hate crime charges, his legal team requested a fourth delay to December 2019, citing a need to more fully review evidence from Urbanski's phone, which the judge granted.[11]

Urbanski's trial began on December 11, 2019.[12] The early proceedings of the trial hinged on Urbanski's hate crime charge. Deriving an argument from the racist memes found on Urbanski's phone and that surveillance video obtained showed Urbanski approaching Collins with a knife drawn, the prosecution argued that the crime was racially motivated.[12] Urbanski's lawyers chiefly argued that he was too drunk to premeditate a killing, and that the state could not show sufficient cause from the images on Urbanski's phone alone. They also showed video of Urbanski singing and urinating into a drain after being placed in jail.[12] The prosecution countered by showing body camera footage from Urbanski's arrest that showed him "speaking clearly and [walking] without assistance" and following police orders despite being visibly confused.[12]

The following week, Judge Lawrence Hill dropped the hate crime charge against Urbanski, calling the state's position "utter speculation" and stating that they failed to provide enough evidence that Urbanski targeted Collins solely on the virtue of his race.[13] Solomon Comissiong, president of the university's Black Faculty and Staff Association, said he was "unsettled" by the ruling, and believed there was a correlation between Urbanski's racist online community and his actions.[14]

The prosecution, as before, largely rested their case on surveillance video and witness testimony that showed Urbanski approaching Collins with a knife drawn, and his apparently calm and collected behavior afterward. Urbanski's lawyers also relied on their former arguments, that Urbanski was simply too drunk to have planned a murder, calling the single stab wound that killed Collins "fluke-ish."[15]

Jurors deliberated for under two hours, finding Urbanski guilty of first-degree murder. Originally scheduled for April 16th, 2020, Urbanski's sentencing was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[16][17] but on January 15, 2021, he was ultimately sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.[18]

Anthony Brown, one of Maryland's House representatives, introduced a resolution (co-signed by 55 other congresspersons) a few days later calling the murder "racially motivated."[1][19]

University president Wallace Loh faced criticism after Collins' murder due to a perceived failure to admit accountability for the incident. Journalist Dave Zirin compared Loh's response to Collins' murder with his response to the scandal over the death of football player Jordan McNair where Loh stated that the university "took moral and legal responsibility"[20] for McNair's death. Loh also faced student criticism in the years following the incident for inaction in memorializing Collins and for remarks made at a commemorative panel. Students from both Bowie State and the University of Maryland also criticized Loh for missing a joint panel coordinated with Bowie State to address racial climate on both the schools' campuses.[21][22]