Man accused of kidnapping and killing ex-girlfriend’s daughter to plead guilty to federal charge
By The Associated Press on March 21, 2024.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) – A man accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend and kidnapping and killing her 2-year-old daughter has 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, Michigan, 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 (161 kilometers) from Lansing. 8-7
