Michigan Man Faces Life Sentence After Allegedly Kidnapping and Killing Toddler

Nearly one year after the death of a Michigan toddler, a man has pled guilty to her kidnapping and killing. On March 21, Rashad Trice pleaded guilty to a charge of kidnapping resulting in death after admitting to abducting Wynter Cole-Smith, his ex-girlfriend’s daughter, from her Lansing, Michigan home.

According to the details of a federal criminal complaint, Trice left the home with two-year-old Wynter on July 2, 2023, after an argument with her mother. The woman said Trice stabbed her and drove off with Wynter in a stolen Chevy Impala. He then took her to an alley in Detroit where he strangled her to death with a cell phone charging cord.

Trice was arrested on July 3, 2023 after trying to escape police, but Wynter was not in the car at the time. Police eventually discovered her body in an alley near a home on Detroit’s east side on July 5, 2023. Trice will be sentenced in July and 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,” U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten said in a statement. “I’m incredibly grateful to FBI Michigan, the Lansing Police Department, and the more than two dozen other local, state, and federal partners who came running to help.”

Lansing Police chief Ellery Sosebee thanked the U.S. Attorney for his role in bringing Trice to justice.

“Thank you to U.S. Attorney Mark Totten and his office for bringing this case across the finish line,” Sosebee said. “My hope is this will give Wynter’s family, friends, and all of the law enforcement partners who were and are still affected by this tragedy a sense of closure.”