INGHAM COUNTY, Mich. – Rashad Maleek Trice is expected to be sentenced Friday morning after pleading guilty to killing 2-year-old Wynter Cole Smith and assaulting her mother in 2023.
On July 2, 2023 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 incident and police pursuit that followed. On Monday, July 1, 2024, Trice pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
He is scheduled to be sentenced at 9 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 16, 2024, before Circuit Court Judge Joyce Draganchuk. He faces the possibility of life in prison 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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