Attorneys for a former University of Maryland student charged with the killing of a black Bowie State University student have asked a judge to separate his first-degree murder and hate crime charges.

Sean Urbanski, who is white, is accused of stabbing Army 2nd Lt. Richard Collins III on the university’s College Park campus in May 2017.

In a recent filing in Prince George’s County Circuit Court, Urbanski’s attorneys questioned the admissibility of evidence tying him to a Facebook page called “Alt-Reich: Nation,” as well as “certain cartoon images” and “group message surveys” taken from his cellphone. The attorneys, William C. Brennan Jr. and John M. McKenna, argue that such material is not “relevant evidence” and even if it were, it would not be admissible as part of the first-degree murder charge.

Brennan and McKenna cited a Maryland court rule that allows for separate trials if evidence in one charge may prejudice a party in relation to another charge.

Neither Urbanski’s lawyers nor the Prince George’s state’s attorney’s office responded to a request for comment Wednesday.

Collins had been visiting friends at College Park when Urbanski approached the group Collins was with near a campus bus stop, according to charging documents. The documents state that a seemingly intoxicated Urbanski told the group to “Step left, step left if you know what’s best for you.” Collins refused, and Urbanski stabbed him in the chest, the documents state.

The next day, law enforcement discovered that Urbanski, of Severna Park, Md., followed a Facebook group called “Alt-Reich: Nation,” whose members shared white supremacist memes.

Five months after being charged with first-degree murder, Urbanski was also charged with a hate crime. Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Angela D. Alsobrooks cited “lots and lots of digital evidence” taken from Urbanski’s phone and computer. “All those things put together” led investigators to look into the incident as a hate crime, Alsobrooks said at a news conference in October.

Collins, an ROTC student, was within a week of graduating from Bowie State University.

Urbanski’s trial was set to begin in this month, but a Prince George’s County judge granted a delay until January at the request of defense attorneys.

Urbanski could receive a life sentence without possibility of parole if convicted of the first-degree murder charge, and an additional 20 years if convicted of a hate crime resulting in death.

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