LANSING, MI – A man who killed his ex-girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Friday, Aug. 16.
Rashad Maleek Trice, 27, of Lansing, kidnapped and killed Wynter Cole-Smith after sexually assaulting and stabbing her mother in the woman’s Lansing apartment on July 2, 2023.
Related: Man confesses to kidnapping and killing his ex-girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter
Police found the girl’s body three days later in an alley near Coleman A. Young International Airport in Detroit.
Trice, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, was sentenced to life in prison by Ingham County District Judge Joyce Draganchuk. He was given a concurrent sentence of 60 to 90 years for first-degree sexual abuse in connection with the attack on the girl’s mother.
Related: Details of girl’s murder “shocking,” says federal prosecutor
Next week, he is expected to be sentenced to another life sentence by U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids after pleading guilty to kidnapping resulting in death.
“Nothing can bring Wynter back, but I hope that knowing that Mr. Trice will spend the rest of his life behind bars without the need for a lengthy trial will provide some comfort to her loved ones,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement.
She praised police officers and prosecutors from several agencies whose work is helping to ensure that “the man responsible for these cruel acts will never again endanger our communities.”
Police from Lansing to Detroit, state police and the FBI investigated the crimes.
Related: Attorney General launches prosecution against man accused in Wynter Smith’s death
The girl’s body was found after a thorough search. Trice admitted to kidnapping the girl and driving her to Detroit. “Throughout the night … he repeatedly played a YouTube video on the internet in an attempt to calm the victim,” federal court documents state.
He took the girl to an alley between Olympia Street and Edgewood Avenue in Detroit, where he strangled her with a pink cell phone cord.
The next day, St. Clair Shores police tried to stop Trice, who was driving a Chevrolet Impala, but he crashed into a patrol car as he tried to flee, police said.
The girl wasn’t there.
“Trice said something to the effect of, ‘I am already a monster,'” an FBI agent wrote in a criminal complaint.
