INGHAM COUNTY, Mich. – A 27-year-old man from Detroit has been sentenced to life behind bars for killing 2-year-old Wynter Cole Smith and assaulting her mother in 2023.
According to authorities, Rashad Maleek Trice kidnapped Wynter in Lansing and stabbed and sexually assaulted her mother before stealing her vehicle and killing the toddler. He was arrested in St. Clair Shores just hours after the toddler was kidnapped, but Wynter wasn’t in the car at that time. Law enforcement found Wynter’s body three days later in Detroit amid a search effort.
Police said Trice actively resisted arrest while being taken into custody at the crash scene. He was brought to a nearby hospital to be treated for injuries from the crash, according to officials.
Trice was initially charged with 20 counts in connection with the crime and police pursuit that followed. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct on July 1, 2024, almost exactly a year after the crimes were committed.
He was sentenced Friday, Aug. 16, to life without parole.
Trice previously reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors on a kidnapping charge. That agreement came with a mandatory life-in-prison sentence.
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