Judge To Consider Admission Of Racist Cartoons In UMD Trial

COLLEGE PARK, MD -- A Prince George's County judge may decide Tuesday whether the racist cartoons posted on a white supremacist Facebook page can be used against a man charged with murdering a black student who visited College Park last year, according to a report.

Sean Urbanski, 24, faces charges of first-degree murder and a hate crime after he allegedly murdered Army Lt. Richard Collins III, who was 23 at the time of his death on May 20, 2017.

WTOP reports that Urbanski's lawyers want two separate trials, one for the murder charge, and one for the hate crime. They argue that prosecutors should not be able to introduce cartoon images taken from his cell phone, as well as discussions from a Facebook page titled "Alt-Reich: Nation" before it was deleted.

The lawyers, William Brennan and John McKenna, want the images and Facebook page barred from the court because they are "particularly offensive, extremely prejudicial, highly inflammatory, irrelevant, and not otherwise admissable," according to WTOP.

Prosecutors allege that Collins was visiting friends at the university when Urbanski stabbed Collins in an unprovoked attack. Urbanski's affiliation with that Facebook page prompted authorities to charge him with a hate crime, but his lawyers argue that is unfair, and instead put forward the theory that alcohol and substance abuse was possibly to blame.

Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence with no change of parole.

UPPER MARLBORO, MD - MAY 26: Mourners pay their respect during a funeral service for 2nd Lt. Richard Collins III, on May 26, 2017 in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Collins was a Bowie State University student who was stabbed and killed on May 20th on the campus of the University of Maryland. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)