A white Army veteran from Baltimore, who the police said traveled to New York to kill black men, was indicted on Monday on rare state charges of murder as terrorism.

A grand jury voted to upgrade existing charges against James Harris Jackson, 28, who the police say confessed to plunging a sword into Timothy Caughman, 66, on March 20 in Chelsea. The killing sent shockwaves throughout New York at a time when there is widespread concern in the city and around the country over rising hate crimes.

The grand jury voted to charge Mr. Jackson with murder as an act of terror in the first- and second-degree, Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, an assistant district attorney, said during a brief appearance in Criminal Court in Manhattan. Judge Tamiko A. Amaker ordered Mr. Jackson, who was also charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime and misdemeanor weapons possession, to return to jail until his arraignment on April 13 in State Supreme Court.

Mr. Jackson cocked his head back and stared at the ceiling as he stood in handcuffs and a khaki prison jumpsuit next to his defense lawyer, Sam Talkin. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison without a chance of parole.