UPDATE 3/22/24 10:30 a.m.
GRAND RAPIDS — U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten on Friday announced that Rashad Trice, 27, pled guilty to kidnapping resulting in death.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 19, before U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Jonker. Trice faces a mandatory life sentence.
“What happened is heart-wrenching, but today marks an important step forward as we seek justice for Wynter Cole-Smith’s family and the people of Michigan,” said Totten.
As part of his plea agreement, Trice admitted that he kidnapped 2-year-old Wynter Cole-Smith from her home in Lansing on July 2, 2023, after a dispute with her mother. Trice took Wynter and drove to an alley in Detroit where he killed her and left her body. Investigators discovered her remains three days later.
3/22/24 5:00 a.m.
GRAND RAPIDS (AP) — After pleading not guilty in August 2023, a man accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend and kidnapping and killing her 2-year-old daughter has now agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge of kidnapping resulting in death, court records show.
The plea agreement entered into Thursday by Rashad Trice shows he faces a minimum term of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.
A criminal complaint states Trice, 27, of Lansing, strangled Wynter Cole Smith with a cellphone cord and left her body in a Detroit alley.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel also has charged Trice in state court with numerous counts in connection with the stabbing and sexual assault of the ex-girlfriend last July and then driving away with Wynter, her daughter.
A message was left Thursday for Trice’s federal public defender.
Trice allegedly fled police who spotted his car in a Detroit suburb July 3, crashed it into a police vehicle and then tried to disarm an officer before he was taken into custody.
Wynter, who was the subject of an Amber Alert, was not in the vehicle. Her body was found July 5 in Detroit, nearly 100 miles from Lansing.
8/7/23 1:25 p.m.
On Monday, Rashad Maleek Trice, 26, pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and killing 2-year-old Wynter Cole-Smith.
He’s charged with one count kidnapping resulting in death, and kidnapping a minor. The mandatory minimum for the first is life in prison, the second is 20 years with a maximum of life in prison.
RELATED: Lansing Police Department: Body of missing 2-year-old found
8/7/23 9:25 a.m.
A Michigan man accused of kidnapping and killing a 2-year-old girl from Lansing is due in federal court Monday.
Rashad Trice is accused of kidnapping and killing Wynter Cole Smith in July.
Wynter was taken from her home in Lansing, police said.
After a long search, her body was found in an alley on Detroit’s east side three days later, police said.
If Trice is convicted of kidnapping resulting in death, the minimum sentence is life in prison. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he could face the death penalty.
If he’s convicted of the second count of kidnapping a minor, the minimum sentence is 20 years in prison, officials said.
