Detroit man pleads guilty to killing child
A Detroit man who was arrested by police in Macomb County following a high speed chase will be sentenced this summer for kidnapping and strangling the 2-year-old daughter of a former girlfriend.
Rashad Trice, 27, pleaded guilty last week to kidnapping resulting in death and is scheduled to be sentenced July 19 by U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids, according to court records.
In exchange for the guilty plea, the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed to drop a charge of kidnapping a minor, a felony with a 20year mandatory minimum 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 Mark Totten said Monday. “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.”
Trice faces a mandatory life in prison sentence after admitting Friday he
kidnapped and strangled 2-year-old Wynter Cole Smith.
Federal prosecutors said Trice admitted kidnapping the girl from her home in Lansing on July 2 because he was fighting with the girl’s mother. He took her to an alley between Olympia Street and Edgewood Avenue in Detroit where he strangled her with a pink cell phone cord, according to a copy of the plea agreement.
After an extensive hunt for the little girl, authorities found her body three days later in an overgrown vegetation garden off Van Dyke Avenue, north of Interstate 94, in Detroit.
Before the body’s discovery, St. Clair Shores police spotted Trice’s vehicle driving on Harper Avenue near Nine Mile Road at 5 a.m. July 3.
The officers, joined by Eastpointe police, attempted to make a traffic stop, but Trice drove off, leading them on a short pursuit at about 100 mph. The Chevy Impala he was driving reportedly collided with another St. Clair Shores police vehicle on Little Mack Avenue and 10 Mile Road.
An Eastpointe officer smashed a window on the vehicle to gain access after Trice refused to exit it. Trice tried to grab his gun but was apprehended.
St. Clair Shores authorities did not file charges against Trice, agreeing to let the federal government consolidate the felonies into their case.
Trice also is facing homicide charges in state court. Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office has charged him with first-degree premeditated murder and felony murder along with 18 other charges stemming from three different counties and consolidated
in one case in Ingham County.