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A Michigan man accused of strangling his ex-girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter and dumping her body near a Michigan airport last year has changed his plea and entered into a plea agreement and will be sentenced to life in prison.
Rashad Maleek Trice was charged with kidnapping Wynter Cole Smith on July 2, 2023, as CrimeOnline previously reported. He was arrested just hours after the kidnapping, but the toddler’s body wasn’t found for three more days in an alley near Young International Airport.
Rashad Maleek Trice Plea Agrement March 21 204 by kc wildmoon on Scribd
In the plea agreement filed Friday with the US District Court in the Western District of Michigan, Trice, who was not the toddler’s father, acknowledged that he kidnapped the little girl from her Lansing home because of a dispute with the girl’s mother and drove to the the Detroit area. He said he repeatedly played a YouTube video “in an attempt to pacify the victim.”
Once in the Detroit area, Trice drove to the alley, “where he strangeld the victim to death with a pink cell phone cord.”
Trice was indicted on charges of kidnapping a minor and kidnapping resulting in death. The plea agreement calls for a guilty plea on the second count only. Other charges will be dismissed on sentencing day, which is set for July 19.
He faces a minimum of life in prison and a maximum of life in prison, a $250,000 fine, and 5 years supervised release. According to the agreement, he also agrees to pay restitution, to be set at sentencing.
Trice also faces 20 state charges, including sexual assault against the toddler’s mother, stabbing the mother, and more, WDIV reported. It’s unclear what, if any, effect the federal plea deal will have on those charges.
