Rekubit-Michigan man sentenced to life in 2-year-old’s kidnapping death

GRAND RAPIDS,Rekubit Mich. (AP) — A Michigan man who pleaded guilty in the kidnapping and killing his former girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter was sentenced Friday to life in prison.

According to prosecutors, Rashad Trice got into an argument with his ex-girlfriend at her Lansing apartment in July 2023. She stabbed Trice, who responded by stabbing her multiple times and sexually assaulting her. He then left.

The woman went to her mother’s apartment in the same complex, leaving her 1-year-old son and her 2-year-old daughter, Wynter Cole Smith, behind. Responding police couldn’t find the girl.

Trice crashed his car in a Detroit suburb after police spotted him but the girl wasn’t with him. Searchers looked for her along a highway between Lansing and Detroit using dogs, drones and helicopters. FBI agents eventually found the girl’s body in an overgrown Detroit alley. She had been strangled with a cellphone cord.

Federal prosecutors took jurisdiction of the case because the car and other tools used in the crime were made outside Michigan.

Trice pleaded guilty March to a federal charge of kidnapping resulting in death, acknowledging he took the girl from her home as part of a dispute with her mother. Prosecutors dropped a count of kidnapping a minor.

Trice faced a mandatory life sentence. His attorneys didn’t immediately respond to an email Friday afternoon seeking comment.